Maximum Fallout
by shadowtheo
Summary: Join Bianca, a snow leopard mutant, and her family of mismatched hybrids as they fight for freedom and race across the world to escape from their pasts. Friends will be made, enemies challenges, and the toughest choices made. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Maximum Fallout: 1 Fashion Victim (prologue).

Fallout, the settling to the ground of airborne particles ejected into the atmosphere from the earth by explosions, eruptions, forest fires, etc. An unexpected or incidental effect, outcome, or product. That's what we are, me and my six friends, family, herd, whatever you want to call us.

Basically the seven of us who are living temporarily in a deserted flat in a run down raining town, where all the buildings look like they were made previously to the discovery of metal. But it's nothing extraordinary, and nothing simple enough to be noticed. And that's why it's home. For now anyway.

With equally mismatched but vicious creatures as yourselves on your tail there really isn't anywhere to call home for very long.

I myself am called Bianca, for obvious reasons, as you'll find out. My life took this rather bizarre turn from the moment some mad men decided to combine my embryonic DNA with that of a snow leopard.

Snow leopard, _Panthera Uncia _or _Uncia Uncia_, depending on your frame of mind. As such I have been blessed with the worldly gifts such as retractable claws, sharper then usual teeth, balance and generally abnormal agility. That's not so bad, but take into account the small fluffy ears and long thick ringed tail, and you're beginning to see a problem. Without even including my subtly patterned back you can already guess that I'm confined to hats and long coats year round.

And in case anyone's ever wondered. Growing a tail. Not fun. At all.

All things said and done though that's my lot. My kitty cat looks also come coupled with my long white blonde hair, very white. I have to tie that up to go out as well, it attracts nearly as much attention as a tail. I tried to dye it several times, but it seemed to drink the brown color and the black. But when a big old eraser pushes you into the mud, then it stains, as well as everything else, clothes, appendages and all.

And my only slightly taller then average height, and my pale blue eyes set all of this off nicely. Forget being able to jump on average 14 meters, I'd give anything for a fashion combo that manages to match all my colors, and still be non static and fur collecting resistant.

Dream on.

:: So there you have the intro, next chapter meet the family!


	2. Chapter 2

Summary: Join Bianca and her family as they fight for freedom and race across the world to escape from their pasts. Please R&R!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon.

Character credit:

Zenia: mfinga12

Taco: avikar

Kuro: shadowwingedwarrior

Ant: Beastboysbeauty

Jason: shortval27

Maximum Fallout: 2 Another New Start

The wet streets shined in the uneven street light that colored everything an orange yellow. It was just gone six in the winter evening and was nearly pitch black.

A lone figure wearing a long dark cloak and a hat traced the dingy streets. There was no one else around in the deserted night.

Bianca let her long thick tail drop from under the heavy coat she was wearing, relishing the feel of the rain falling harmlessly onto the soft fur. She let the grubby plastic bags she was holding fall to the ground as she rested against a lamppost.

"Now we wait." She muttered, tucking a strikingly pale blonde lock of hair back into the hat she wore. As she waited, the mutant 17 year old picked aimlessly at a loose string from the old trench coat.

All of a sudden, the hat she wore shuddered as the two ears beneath it quivered into life, having heard the subtle noises she awaited. The padding of footsteps was so soft that no human hearing would have detected it, even if the noise had been right beside them.

"You're early." Bianca mentioned about a minute later as two figures appeared through the drizzle into the circle of light.

"Didn't find much." Replied a guy's voice.

Kuro, 17, part lynx, _Lynx lynx_ in the scientific name. The raised hood of his red jumper concealing the tufted lynx ears and blonde hair with red tips. He didn't feel the cold despite only wearing shorts. His enhanced grace and agility accompanied by enhanced hearing were great assets, as well as his superb eyesight. His ability to control electric devices and overall smarts easily made him the most intelligent of the group.

"What did you find?" Came the curious tones of the other guy.

Neon, 16, part flamingo, _Pheonicopterus roseus_. The white coats had a field day with him. The avian of the group, so named Neon because of the luridly pink wings that he sported, as well as the almost iridescent streaks in his otherwise longish, messy, thick black hair. He stood resting on one leg, the other one held slightly off the floor as usual. He had impeccable balance and talon like feet that were nearly as good as hands. His nervous energy a side effect of a slightly messed up head. 'Feather brain' fits him to a tee, he has a fragile aspect that makes him look like he needs to be taken care of, and he probably does.

"Well the usual spoils of scraps from the local Indian." Bianca answered indicating the bags at her feet. "And no sign of anyone, undesirable?" She asked casually as the three retrieved the bags and set off 'home'.

"Not today, but I've got a feeling that wont last long." Kuro answered her, Neon walked next to him, watching his reflection go by in the puddles.

"I've got a feeling you're right there mate." The snow leopard mix commented. The three of them passed by so quietly that not a mouse would have heard them walk. Such was the advantage of being human, animal hybrids.

Home was a small decrepit flat just outside what was laughingly called the center of town; containing very few places of interest, and even fewer that one would actually want to go into.

The only problem with 'borrowing' accommodation was the lack of any sort of key to lock doors. However, when you lived with six other people who all had the abilities of a high tech radar, it wasn't really a problem.

As the three figures entered the building, they let their guard drop. Kuro shook off his hood and yawned widely, Neon ran his hands through his hair as he caught site of himself in a cracked mirror on the wall, and Bianca removed her hat and stretched in ways unfeasible to a yoga master.

"Come on Pinky." Kuro grinned, grabbing Neon by the upper arm and hauling him away from the mirror. "You spend more time looking in reflective surfaces then the girls put together."

"I do not! Bianca takes longer then me."

"Do not! No one could take as long as you."

"My point exactly." Kuro finished with a smirk, Neon grumbling good naturedly as he followed up the stairs. Bianca had to not laugh at the two.

As they reached the top floor, given it wasn't a very high flat, Bianca swung the door open.

"Bianca!" She was assaulted by a white blur of fur and clothing.

"Heya Ant, you hungry huh?" The boy's corresponding grin revealed sharply pointed teeth.

Ant, 8, part arctic wolf, or white wolf, or _Canis lupis arctos_. Blonde hair falling into his astounding purple eyes, the youngest of the group. Quite small for our kind, large wolf ears having replaced his human ones and a longish thick tail wrapped securely around his waist. Sharp hearing and sense of smell as well as incredible eyesight is added to by his ability to speak with any form of canine; that they had encountered.

"Hey buddy!" Kuro greeted playfully, ruffling the boy's hair affectionately, Ant smiled back softly. Their friendship was good for the both of them; they seemed to liven the other up.

"Hello..." Neon attempted in a looming manner. The two fragile looking team mates weren't all that compatible, both succeeding in scaring the other on occasion. If they ever managed to get around that little kink, Bianca was sure they'd be fine. As it was, Neon was terrible with most children.

"Finally your back, these guys have been driving me nuts!" Came the only slightly annoyed tones of Zenia as she walked up to Neon, grabbing his sleeve and leading him to the couch.

Zenia, 14, part puma, _Puma concolor_, Her dark hair had a slightly crimped appearance with purple at the bottom, setting off the purple cat eyes stunningly. Her long black tail the only visible part of her animal half. Enhanced hearing, amazing speed, seemingly alert even when asleep and her psychic abilities allowing her to catch others thoughts set her off nicely.

Neon placidly followed Zenia to the couch, where the two began one of their conversations that only they seemed to really get. More use of movement then language. The two got along shockingly well; they seemed to have formed a connection of sorts.

"You've only been driving yourself nuts. I guess there aren't any tacos in those bags huh?" Taco, so named after her favorite food, looked slightly put out at the lack of her obsession. They all knew that wouldn't last long however.

Taco, 13, part chinchilla, _Chinchilla lanigera_. Hyper and bubbly, but slightly messed up from her past, she's fine until an enemy comes along, then all hell brakes loose. Dainty hands and feet, slightly larger then normal ears and a fluffy tail are her accessories. Sensitive hearing, phenomenal balance, amazing agility and her powers of observation are practically second to none. Her friendly personality is returned by nearly everyone. But her and Zenia just have a little feud going, they care really... Really.

"No such luck, but I did manage to scrounge some garlic naan bread."

"Score! Neon you wanna share?" The two were essentially vegetarians, save for emergencies, and Neon adored shrimps and prawns.

"Easy there, don't want to be smelling that all night." Kuro joked easily, Taco merely smiled back.

"Then you better hope you don't get a midnight visit from me. Come on Ant, let's _set_ the table." By this she meant move any rubbish off of it to where appropriate. The two moved off where Taco made a great show of playfully chasing Ant around the table with the rubbish, both laughing.

Bianca and Kuro exchanged an amused look before moving the bags to the counter.

"Next time, I get to go food hunting." Announced Jason as he stood up from a chair to help with the unpacking.

Jason, 17, part kangaroo, _Marcopus rufus_ and_ Marcopus giganteus_. Much the peace bringer of the group, he brings us down when we get too high. Loves to help, but maybe needs help himself sometimes too. Really tall and can run and jump fast and far, incredible strength, especially in his deadly legs. He carries around a stick, pole thing to help him deliver those kicks he's known for, and his hearing is spectacular. Also able to tell what others are feeling and have instant knowledge about any plant.

"You know it's safer to leave a few people here Jason."

"Yeah JJ, don't sweat it, besides, we're back now." Kuro replied mockingly, Jason rarely got worked up; they were alike in that way.

"Good, Zenia was going spare. Taco was singing along to a CD she found under the couch."

"Uh oh, what is it." Bianca asked in a pained voice, knowing that this could well lead to their theme tune for the next age. Everybody loved music, and the old and battered CD player was their only way to listen to some, so whenever someone found a CD, it seemed to play endlessly.

"Disney's greatest hits." Jason announced and smiled at Kuro's shudder.

"Why isn't it playing now?"

"Zenia hid it."

"Success!" Came the gleeful voice from Taco as she found the CD amongst the rubbish on the table. Zenia's eye twitched slightly as it begun playing from where it left off.

"On an endless search through time and space, for a place that wont seem wrong!" Taco sang out in a pretty voice, recounting 'Shooting Star' by Boyzone.

Ant smiled and settled down to be a captive audience of the rendition. Neon nodded along in time with the music. Kuro laughed and Jason and Bianca laughed at Zenia's pained expression. She just wasn't Disney material.

As the song switched to 'He Lives In You' by Tina Turner Taco grabbed Neon's arm and the two started a dance, twirling around the table until the food was set out.

"How do you even know the lyrics?" Zenia asked the two as they merrily sang along to the strange lyrics.

"Kuro let us watch the film on his laptop from the Internet last week." Taco supplied helpfully everyone sat at the table.

The garlic naan bread was snatched up by the two dancers. Ant nervously took the plain naan bread available, as he didn't like eating animals either. Jason took the vegetable curry. The three cats looked gleefully at each other before ravenously digging into the chicken korma, paying no attention to the slightly spicy curry.

It wasn't a banquet by any means, but that was their life, and times like this, with Disney's best booming out of the stereo, made good times in their otherwise harsh life.

"Okay, bed time guys." Bianca announced hours later, she liked having everyone full of energy in the morning; it was the best way to start the day. There were no complaints, everyone slept at the same time or earlier, if they stayed up after then that was their look out. And they would pay duly when there was an emergency the next day and they were tired. It paid to be alert in their lives.

The 'herd' as they affectionately called themselves, finding it an amusing contrast to compare their natural agility and graze to some of the less agile of the world's animals.

They slept where they felt like it, having anything to set seemed to rile up most of them, they weren't used to routine. Neon and Zenia camped out in the kitchen area, curling up on the sofa in a way they'd done for ages, both of them appreciated the comfort it provided.

Bianca and taco shared one of the bare rooms. Taco curled up in a nest like bed she'd made under a desk, Bianca sleeping on a mattress placed on top of the wardrobe.

Kuro slept under the window in the hall, hood over his head as he lay in sheets surrounded by the many items of technology he'd accumulated.

Ant and Jason shared the other bare room. Ant curled up softly in a cardboard box layered with various materials, feeling security tonight in the small space. Jason slept on the huge bottom draw of a dresser, lined with a blanket, legs and arms sprawled over the sides.

However, tonight wouldn't provide a lot of sleep for the seven mutants.

One minute there was calm and peace throughout the house, the next Zenia had jerked awake tensely, waking up Neon with her. The easily spooked bird for once woke quietly and sharply, sensing the tense energy coming from her.

"Were not alone." She announced in barely a whisper, turning to nod at Neon. He swung long legs silently to the ground and was out of the room in one swift movement, Zenia stood up and moved out of sight of the door to keep listen. They could be outside or inside, but they were definitely here. Her senses had never failed before.

"Jason, wake up." The kangaroo stirred at the touch on his arm.

"What's going on?" He sensed the strictly contained nervous energy from the figure kneeling next to him, but it was always that way with Neon. Underneath that however was the strange certainty that the flamingo sometimes gave off. He sat up immediately.

"Company." Came the soft reply and the two straightened up. The only slight noises had woken Ant who followed unquestioningly as the two left the room. Jason went swiftly to the kitchen incase Zenia needed him. Neon tapped Ant on the shoulder and they walked down the corridor stopping in front of the waking Kuro.

"I take it our friends have come to pay a visit?" He questioned mildly and quietly, managing to let a smile slip from Neon. Kuro saw what everyone else would miss, the subtle shift in Ant's purple eyes to a slightly darker shade.

"Get Bianca." Neon said and then stood and returned swiftly to the kitchen.

"You ready little guy?" Kuro questioned and Ant nodded sagely. The kid had spirit, and Kuro admired it.

The two walked the short distance to the door and pushed it open. At the slight creak it created Bianca woke from sleep instantly and flawlessly jumped off the wardrobe, landing without a sound and moving to Kuro. Taco rolled out from under the bed and stood with the group as well.

"Lets go then!" Bianca announced in a slightly creepy, sadistic way, leading the others out of the room with a calm attitude, Ant needed it, and the longer Taco kept calm the better.

Jason sensed the calm presence enter the room, followed by excited thrill, nerves, and a slightly anticipation-like excitement from Kuro Ant and Taco. They joined Zenia's tense anticipation and Neon's unnatural certain feeling.

"There outside." He commented as Bianca moved next to him.

"Do you think-" She cut her words off as everyone stilled; they had all heard the downstairs door opening. "Window?" She grinned after a beat. At the varied reactions from grinning to agreeing stonily she nodded at Neon.

The bird moved softly and confidently to the large window in the room, his wings unfolding and coming through his dark top. The lurid pink color would look ridiculous on anyone else, but on Neon, it just fit strikingly.

Lifting up the windowpane he lent out, the other's moved forwards as well. After a very brief freefall his wings struck open and he flawlessly circled up. He hung upside down in front of the window and grabbed Taco's hands.

Pulling her out he threw her easily to the roof; she twisted in the air to land flawlessly without a sound. Then he grabbed Ant's outstretched hand and wheeled upwards through the rain with a wind current.

Their general preference was flight over fight; they did want to survive after all. Jason leapt from the windowsill, his powerful legs pushing him far into the air onto a surrounding roof.

Zenia leapt agilely onto a jutted edge of the building before springing onto the roof opposite. Kuro effortlessly leapt through the air onto the branch of a nearby tree, and then followed Jason.

Bianca leapt onto a nearby lamppost, landing flawlessly before pushing off again. She sprung about 10 meters into the air with ease, relishing the feel of air blowing through her long hair. She opened her eyes as she descended, twisting expertly to land on both feet on the same roof as Zenia.

Zenia and Bianca dashed off, the puma used her speed to catapult her jumps from roof to roof, the snow leopard made short bursts of speed before launching into leaps that easily carried her across the buildings.

The two easily ran and leapt side by side both caught up in the speed of their leaps and softness of their landings.

A dark shadow passed over the top of them, the two looked up to see Neon roll over flexibly in the air, catching a leaping Taco and then propelling her forwards with the motion before spiraling down level to the cats' movement.

Taco landed slightly ahead of them on the roof before nimbly jumping in time with them. Ant was holding on around Neon's neck scouring the ground.

"Heads up!" He shouted, Neon twisted his wing's up and rose swiftly high into the sky, avoiding the sudden jump by an eraser onto the roof behind them.

Bianca turned around with one foot to deliver a stunning kick to the eraser's jaw, then springing up and backwards, twisting her body and landing.

More erasers jumped after the first.

"Keep going Taco!" Bianca ordered as the nimble hybrid began to turn. She swiftly made the turn a 360 degree one and flew on. Bianca and Zenia exchanged a glance as an eraser jumped up in front of them, they grinned.

Both girls leapt into the air simultaneously, turning in opposite directions in synch. As they reached the great drooling beast's height they both let their leg fly out, striking the creature blindingly on each side of the head. The force sent him careering back into the other three following them, causing them all to fall about.

"Score!"

"Nice!" They yelled in unison as they high-fived before landing and running on.

On the roofs across from them they saw Kuro and Jason whooping as they succeeded in making two erasers collide in mid air. Taco sprung nimbly ahead and then turned and yelled.

"There's a train going our way!" The roofs of the house would meet where the railway went passed. The herd raced along the side of the head of the train as the end of buildings drew closer.

Neon spiraled down and dived at the roof, finding the slipstream of the train and letting Ant grab hold. As Ant detached he grabbed a hold as well.

Taco leapt and landed on her feet before getting pushed to her back with the movement and grabbing on.

Jason and Kuro leapt and landed on a separate carriage, Kuro clawed at the surface and Jason placed his pole through a loop and clung on.

Zenia and Bianca threw themselves headlong onto the train as one. Sharp claws dug into the train as the wind rushed past them.

Bianca glanced behind them, the speed making her eyes water, as she saw their home for two weeks disappearing behind them into sheets of rain, the erasers mere pinpricks of life as they rushed on their way.

"Well, onwards and upwards right." Zenia commented with a slight grin, Bianca felt the deep connection with her family, a new start hey, could be just what they needed. That's what she told herself every time, and every time it made it that much more bearable, and that much more like an adventure.

She grinned and Zenia returned the gesture. And as they turned to see the other's mirroring grins the world seemed a bit brighter. After all, if there was one thing they loved, it was moving, and that was exactly what they were doing.

Well, you couldn't say any of them were domestic could you?

::Tada! hope you liked, please let me know ya thoughts, they make me write.

::shadowtheo.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon. Once again credit to those who supplied characters used in this chapter.

PLEASE, PLEASE read what I've written at the bottom if you want to submit a character, also please LET ME KNOW you've read the actual story if you want to submit one, cause otherwise its a hell of a lot for me to put in effort where you haven't.

Sorry, please enjoy. Thank you!

Maximum Fallout: 3

"Lets get INSIDE!" Bianca screamed across the stinging winds, trying to convey her message to the people in front for the third time.

Finally everyone seemed to understand and slowly begun to look into the carriages below as best they could.

"Ours is empty!" Zenia yelled to Bianca.

"Come to me my pretties!" Bianca yelled back to the others in a deep evil tone. The other's slowly turned around.

Zenia flipped off the roof and Bianca held her legs, wrapping her own around a handle to keep from falling. She wondered silently why people put so many things that could be used as a grip onto the roofs of trains, but tried not to dwell on it.

It was midnight, but the darkness bothered none of them. Zenia shoved the large window that seemed to lead to a storage area, it fell in easily in one piece, as it was made from plastic.

She clung onto the top of the window.

"Alright!" She yelled and Bianca released her legs. Zenia swung effortlessly through the open space, landing on the plastic pane below. She moved back as Jason's legs appeared in the window as he swung through.

They didn't exchange any words, as they were more mutual with each other then friendly.

The two watched as Kuro, Ant and Taco swung through, followed by Neon, who looked decidedly worse for wear, As Bianca swung in they fitted the pane back in the window.

Kuro and Bianca joined Ant and Taco exploring the cabin. Neon sat on the floor looking miserable. He seemed to not be able to make up his mind over whether to attempt to fix his hair or his wings first, both of which were a mess.

As the two knelt by him they exchanged a short glance. The two sort of fought over looking after the hapless bird, he had an innocence that they both needed to be with, and that both wanted to protect on their own sometimes.

In a fight he didn't need looking after at all, he was an instinctual fighter, just like Jason had strength and Zenia had speed. But when he got messed around his brain didn't quite seem to be able to handle it. Everyone needs to be needed, and Neon let people help him with ease.

Right now the rushing air of the train had messed up his feathers, they stuck up all over the place in a painful looking way as Neon let them rest on the floor.

"Come on buddy, let's get you straightened out." Jason soothed brotherly as the dejected figure curled up. At the words though he dragged one of his wings across the floor and begun straightening feathers.

Zenia frowned at the messed up limbs, knowing it was best to let the expert sort them out, as the rest knew next to nothing about wings. 'Good thing he can sort his own wings out then.' She thought, and instead ran a hand through the previously gorgeous hair, straightening it out too.

Jason watched Neon's face as he worked. His thoughts were always strangely methodical when he was doing this sort of task, when usually they were an erratic mess. He found the flamingo fascinating; even if frustratingly dim at times.

He didn't dare read Zenia's emotions when he could help it, the two weren't as close as the others, and he knew she tried to avoid catching his thoughts whenever she could.

Their abilities were probably why they were both drawn to the feathered creature. He worked differently from all the mundane people who passed them down streets; they both appreciated the break in tension that the use of their powers caused.

Even within the group, you could catch snippets of one of the other's deepest feelings or secrets, and then there would be a whole lot of trouble. Neon seemed to be happy when someone could tell what he was really feeling, or really trying to say. And he gave Zenia and Jason a freedom with their powers that made them useful for something other then catching bad guys.

"Where do you reckon were headed?" Zenia questioned.

"Away, other then that I have no idea." Jason replied. Zenia let out a strange smile.

"Away from what." Jason didn't know how to answer that, so he didn't. Neon shifted to the other wing, the other folded behind him, no one would notice if he was wearing a coat.

"Away from us." He said, the other two stared at him, but his thoughts were colliding with each other, and his emotions became erratic again.

Neon stood up as he finished and lent against the crate behind him, looking as calm and soft as ever.

"What?" He questioned at their glances, and then mumbled as he lifted a leg off the floor and picked at his sleeve.

"Everything okay guys?" Bianca questioned.

"Nothing, anything useful here?" Jason asked.

"Surprisingly yes!" She grinned and gestured to the other three. "People we now have capes!" The two turned to see Kuro, Taco and Ant sporting long black, hooded coats.

"That is _so_ not becoming our uniform." Zenia announced, crossing her arms.

"I think they're awesome! It's so 'Phantom of the Opera'!" Taco said gleefully, and she and Kuro quickly begun a rendition of the main song.

"Unbelievable." The puma muttered, but donned one of the cloaks as it was thrown at her.

Once everyone had his or her hoods up, Bianca smiled.

"Well now we really look like fugitives."

"It makes no sense, we don't even know where we'll end up, and were dressing like bloomin' _death eaters_!" Zenia snorted mildly.

"Well I say we get off at the first stop, its too easy to just track one train." Kuro suggested, nods of agreement showed all round.

"_Death eaters_ it is then!" Taco sang merrily, and that truly broke the tension.

"As soon as possible, we really need to grab some new clothes." There were more nods of agreement at this, and the herd settled down for the journey.

"We need to be more careful." Bianca mentioned to Kuro and Jason as they sat around. "That was too close."

"We will be, we learn from everything remember?" Bianca smiled at Jason, moral support was totally his scene.

"Yeah, and then we'll just beat those erasers even harder then last time." Kuro added, wining a small chuckle from the other two.

Taco talked animatedly to the other four, making wild gestures and pulling funny voices, even succeeding in making Zenia laugh.

"OH! I know what we should do!" She announced excitedly. At the questioning looks she stood up onto one leg, beginning to flex in increasingly agile positions and then holding them.

"This will increase our balance." She explained, and then swiftly flipped onto the crate behind her. "It's like a juddering obstacle course!" She said as she leapt around the compartment.

Neon stood expertly on one leg for a few seconds before stretching his arms out and twirling on top of a stack of boxes. The two leapt around, pulling ever more elaborate jumps and balancing on ever more impossible surfaces.

Zenia stood and stretched as well.

"Might as well." She shrugged before moving lightning fast up a mound of stacked items. Soon everyone was whizzing around without a sound, each concentrating too much to talk.

'Every opportunity.' Bianca thought as she twisted over Taco in the air.

Eventually the train slowed to a halt. The sky was lightening outside as they pushed the widow out slowly. Ant peaked out the window, a calculating look on his face.

The kid could latch on to sights further away then the others and see it clearly when he wanted to.

"If we hop across the train tracks there's a way into the city by an alley." He announced.

"Well I say we get going and get good then people." Bianca said, and the hybrids swiftly filed out of the window, silent as a ghost.

The subtle morning light broke through the clouds, highlighting the cloaked figures darting across tracks and around the stationary trains.

Surely enough at the back of the lines of trains was a short alley that lead to a busy street full of shops.

"Alright, Jason, Kuro, go find us the basics of disguising ourselves." The two were the ones able to disguise themselves the easiest. Kuro nodded and lost the cloak, donning his hood, Jason also dropped the cloak, his stick hid under his clothes just fine.

The remaining people stayed put, gazing in wonder out at the colorful world they could see.

"Do you reckon that girl _knows_ that her skirt is that short, or do you think its coincidence?" Zenia questioned blandly with a slightly disgusted look on her face.

"Oh she totally knows it, look at her bend over in front of that guy." Bianca answered, snickering.

"Well the guy certainly ain't too bothered, look at him checking her out!" Taco exclaimed gleefully, having a whale of a time. Bianca thought Taco would make excellent paparazzi.

"Yeah and the girls loving it." Neon added in mirth as they watched the girl bat her eyelashes seductively.

"Do people really do that?" Ant asked, also looking disgusted. "I thought it was exaggerated in the movies."

"We may have been to towns before, but our cultural learning seems to be sorely, sorely mistaken." Bianca concluded as the girl squealed and threw her arms around the guy's neck before they engaged in a vicious tongue battle.

"Eww, what are they doing that for?" Ant muttered, squirming slightly. Bianca grabbed him into a hug.

"Oh Ant, never change." She laughed as she ruffled his hair; Ant offered a brilliant smile in return.

They watched the goings on until the other two returned.

"We managed to get through to the stockroom, they shall never know." Kuro said, grinning. None of them approved of stealing, but mutant hybrids had to take what they needed.

There were several long coats and hats, as well as some bags that were way too fashionable for kids of their caliber. The clothes were colorful and high fashion, and would probably get them noticed. However, Kuro and Jason had insisted that these were the items the shop had the most of, and so they wouldn't be missed.

See, they did think about some things, sometimes.

Taco donned a silver gray coat over her yellow t-shirt; it covered the fluffy tail and set off her white hair nicely. Zenia's long dark coat slipped over her white t-shirt shirt, giving a stylish and intimidating look. Ant grabbed a zip up brown jacket that went past his waist just far enough to disguise the white tail wrapped around his waist, also a beanie type hat hid the large wolf ears he had. Neon claimed a dark, slightly shiny piratical looking coat that gave no hint of his tucked up wings. Bianca put on a long trench coat and a black hat with a slight lip to it, tucking up her hair and tail. Kuro utilized a fashionable looking baseball cap. Jason had scored a new jacket, although he didn't really need it.

"I think were ready to hit the town." Bianca announced.

"Yeah we're hot stuff!" Taco added in a sensual voice, striking a sexy pose with a pout. Everyone laughed until they got on the street and realized that it made them look suspicious.

They all strode calmly down the sidewalk and were pleasantly surprised that no one paid them any attention. In fact, compared to some groups of people, they were a plain cord in the weird and vulgarly dressed city.

The group trolled through the city, trying not to drool at every food stand and run into every shop. Not to mention jump at the other weirdly dressed citizens around.

"No I know that we don't really have a specific niche, but we so don't fit in here." Zenia muttered to Bianca as they passed a group of gothic clowns.

"There are so many freaks here!"

"Shh Taco! You'll anger the natives!" Kuro joked as Taco sniggered at the candyfloss pink wearing gaggle of girls coming out of a shop.

"Yeah, they're even stranger then we are." Neon added as he picked his way down the street. Ant clung tightly to Blanca's hand as a voluptuous woman waved at him.

"Jason, Jason! Is that a man in a dress?" Neon hissed at the kangaroo, grabbing his shoulder and gesturing.

"Ugh, she, I mean he, should put those away." Jason said as the man woman jiggled the large fake bosoms.

"Ah!" Came the high-pitched scream from Neon, as what everyone thought was a statue suddenly poked him. The spooked bird all but flapped and squawked as he dashed forwards.

Zenia grabbed the passing flamingo round the waist and held him steady until he calmed down, breathing heavily and hair standing on end.

"Why would somebody _do _that?" He questioned breathlessly, still slightly trying to jerk away from the smiling statue.

"Man you are so paranoid!" Kuro laughed as Neon placed a hand over a racing heart.

Sooner were out of here the better right?" Jason asked him in a calm voice, it seemed to work slightly as he nodded shakily before beginning to walk normally again. He stayed right next to Zenia though, grabbing her arm lightly when there were any sudden movements.

Taco who had stayed quiet during the event begun talking once more, making everyone laugh at the odd outfits of the surrounding people.

Everyone was laughing and joking so much as they moved that no one really noticed the crowds thinning out.

"Oof!" Bianca exclaimed as she collided with someone, looking behind she caught a glimpse of a balaclava-covered face with odd eyes before it turned away.

"How rude." Taco commented, before they all saw a bunch of people with multicolored Afros.

Not really noticing where they were going, they came through a last street and into an abandoned industrial area. There was one tall and rusty looking warehouse and then rubble stacked high in various places around the large otherwise open ground space.

Suddenly Zenia and Taco tensed. Bianca noticed the pinprick pupils of Taco and complete focus of Zenia. Then the smell hit her.

"Erasers." She hissed as large numbers of them gradually emerged from behind them and the rubble. "Damn, and we were having such a good day too."

And then the scene erupted, a fight easily breaking out between the rival sides.

::Please R&R people! Thank you for those who did last time, made my day.

::To the person who created 'Tam', if you do read this then please review and show interest in the story to have your character put in if you want a major role, just stuff like tell me how you think she would get on with these guys and how they might meet. Otherwise I'm not going to be able to put her in as I have other new character coming up. THIS GOES FOR EVERYONE WHO STILL WANTS TO SUBMIT A CHARACTER. Thank you.

:Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon

Credit to San child of the wolves for the character Ash, to the creators of the other characters in the story.

Hope you enjoy.

Maximum Fallout: 4

Bianca pushed off from the ground, hitting 13 meters into the sky. Tilting her body she kicked off the side of a wall and flew into the thicket of erasers. Knocking the feet from under one she used the momentum to spin up and kick another squarely in the jaw.

All at once she was grabbed from behind by one of the ugly brutes, her hat spinning off as she was thrown at a wall. Managing to twist expertly Bianca managed to hit the wall once more with her feet, bending her legs to take in the impact before ricocheting back into the offending eraser. She leapt up to land on all four feet and pounce up a heap of ruble out of the erasers' grasps.

She took a quick look around, but couldn't see anyone else from her viewpoint. As she scanned the fighting and rubble she felt an arm clasp her own and pull her backwards.

"Ah!" She exclaimed, latching sharp nails into the rubble as equally sharp nails grasped at her arm for a grip. Bianca heard a grunting cry and felt the eraser detach from her bloodied arm.

Turning she saw Ant panting only slightly with a glare on his face at the fallen and crippled eraser. The shared a glance and nodded before leaping back into the fray.

Taco had lost it. Her slight mental instability heightened in times of high stress when there was anything eraser or white coat like around. At these times a feral sort of rage takes over, and although her strength would increase, common sense is lost to the bloodlust.

As result Taco dashed off with a bust of speed and plowed straight into an oncoming line of erasers.

The chinchilla leapt through and over the erasers; soon she was far away from the others and right in the thick of things. Her nimble movements kept her just out of grasp as she tore and bit in an animalistic sort of way.

Some of the erasers seemed slightly intimidated by the child as they surrounded her, leaving her snarling and wide eyed, as if daring her attackers.

Taco sprung directly into one of the approaching mutants, viciously slashing at the screaming creature's face. The circled erasers also leapt forward to get at her as a fluorescent dive-bomb hurtled into them.

The approaching erasers were knocked down as Taco ricocheted around; Neon flung himself from the ground as an eraser swiped viciously at him. Swinging a leg out he hit an eraser in the gut before using the momentum to fall down and kick it into the air.

The erasers were stunted by the two different flurries of movement. Taco sprung erratically from victim to victim, merely ploughing through any hurt that befell her, whilst Neon fought in a way that almost seemed like dancing, using the momentum from an action or a blow to fuel the next movement.

Zenia sprinted through the erasers, slashing and dashing away without injury, her speed rendering her near un-catch able to the slower hybrids.

"Just how many _are_ there?!" She yelled as she raced past Kuro.

Kuro leapt and flipped to cover an eraser's ears, causing it to howl in pain, before flinging out an arm and swinging it to command some live wires into the backs of another two.

Jason kicked viciously at an approaching eraser, sending it hurtling into another; neither would be getting up soon. He swung around using the pole as a push off to deliver a near fatal blow to another one.

"Too many!" Jason called to Zenia as she scratched another eraser's back, and not in the friendly way.

"Ah!" Jason looked around to see Kuro being thrown into a wall by an eraser. Wincing a little as he got up the lynx pounced onto his offender, knocking the eraser's head on the floor as it fell.

"Fucking dogs." He cursed as he kicked another. There was no end to them.

"We're not all bad!" Came a yell before a black figure dived in front of him and threw a punch at an oncoming eraser. Kuro kicked another in its wolfish snout before turning to try to make out the dark figure.

However as he turned he saw not a person, but a morphing shape. After fending off another clumsy attack he saw, not a hybrid, but a wolf latching onto the neck of an opponent that was going down screaming.

"What the?" He managed before launching the live wires to another eraser.

"Kuro? You okay?" Zenia yelled as she skidded to a halt beside him. They threw a simultaneous punch at an eraser that sent it flying before continuing.

"We have a helpful guest." Zenia stared around confused before seeing the wolf being cuffed sharply by an eraser before getting up and biting its arm fiercely.

"Oh." She said simply, but then was thrown up in the air courtesy of a sneaky eraser. Twisting she landed on top of another one getting caught by a punch to the back before sinking her own claws into it's arms.

Jason, Kuro, Zenia and the wolf soon noticed the erasers calling a retreat, clearing the bodies from the floor and scurrying away. The four kept fighting until there were no erasers in range and the ground was clear. Large lupine hybrids could move surprisingly fast with their tails between their legs.

The wolf morphed back into the dark figure, which was now distinguishable as a girl, one with odd colored eyes and long dark hair as the only features you could make out.

She removed the balaclava she wore slightly hesitantly, the three members of the herd stood next to each other in a slightly wary manner, not dissimilar to the girl's.

"Um, I'm Ash." She fidgeted a bit before taking a breath and continuing. "I'd like to join you."

The three stared in a stupid manner before a crashing noise made all four turn around.

Bianca strode out from behind some rubble furiously with Ant following behind her with a pained expression on.

"Why the hell were there so God damn many of them." She cursed, they were both looking worse for wear. Bianca's left arm was bloody and there was a nasty cut on her forehead, staining the ethereal blonde locks a dark crimson brown color as she angrily wiped them out of her face. Ant held his stomach tightly as he moved, it likely having been punched a few times.

The two came to a stop were the other three were.

"We just totally got our arses' handed to us." She finished before spying the new figure. "What's going on?" She asked suspiciously, recognizing the odd eyes and long dark hair of the person she had bumped into earlier.

"I'm Ash. And I'd like to join you." The strange girl answered with more confidence then the previous time.

"Right. Okay. Where are Taco and Neon?" Bianca replied in a distracted manner, rubbing her aching head.

"Here." Came a quiet tone from above them, Neon dropped down and landed badly, stumbling on one leg that he swiftly picked up, swaying slightly, in his arms was the limp form of Taco. The two didn't look good. Neon was sporting a couple of bruises and one wing was drooping slightly, there was blood soaking through the trousers on his left leg that was off the floor. Taco had several scratched and bruises, her clothes were torn and her hair a mess.

"Whoa." Kuro muttered as they all, including Ash somehow, rushed forwards. Kuro quickly took Taco and held her close, he begun assessing her injuries whilst Ant looked up with wide eyes.

Jason quickly moved and caught Neon as he swayed dangerously; the flamingo leaned on him gratefully, breathing shallowly. Zenia bent down and touched the bloody leg gingerly, noticing the small hitch in its owner's breathing.

"What happened?" Bianca questioned anxiously, worry written all over her face, Ash looked on, a concerned look on her face even though she didn't know them.

"Taco was gone. An eraser caught her and she, screamed. It was really loud and high and all of them fell down, really out of it." Neon answered quietly, nearly whispering at the end and slumping further on Jason. He continued after a deep breath.

"When I could hear again Taco wasn't moving." Neon trembled lightly as he looked over at Taco.

"This is deep Bianca. He's lost a lot of blood." Zenia concluded, looking up at the leader.

"Taco's unconscious and beaten up, but I think she'll be fine." Bianca looked between the two and nodded.

"Okay," She turned to the dark girl, whose eyes switched to attention. "I don't quite know what you're all about, but you've done us no harm and you've been in this town longer then us probably. We need to get out, and you probably need to now as well, so lets leave together at least, alright?" The girl smiled genuinely.

"Okay, this way." She said and turned, heading for a small opening in the wall. The other's followed, moving as quickly as they could, as they headed down an alleyway.

"There's an open top bus that goes right past the edge of the city, if we climb up this wall then we can jump onto it as it passes." She explained as they reached the side of a building.

"Sounds good to me." Kuro added. Ant smiled shyly up at Ash, who offered a soft, if confused one in return, the wolf ears on her head twitching. Her tail swished softly as she unzipped her black jumper and tied it around her waist, allowing the two perfectly concealed wings on her back to open. She jumped and flapped up to the top of the building.

"Girls got it going hasn't she?" Kuro remarked again.

Jason wrapped an arm around Neon's waist who grabbed on around the taller's neck as he jumped powerfully. The kangaroo made sure to land so that Neon's feet weren't touching the ground so as to bring no more harm to the damaged leg.

Kuro held the light figure of Taco and easily leapt to the roof, landing softly so as not to jar any of her bruises or cuts. Zenia picked up Ant and jumped up with him, Bianca followed last, still cradling her arm to her chest.

They lay in wait until they saw the bus come from round the corner. As it came closer to them they were thrilled to notice no one else was on the bus, maybe due to the dwindling light. They had evidently spent quite a long time wandering the town, even if it was beginning to get darker much earlier.

When the bus passed them they all jumped, or flew, onto the top carefully, making sure to not make a sound and alert a likely grumpy driver to the new cheapskate passengers that didn't pay.

Everyone relaxed slightly as they sat down; Ash's ears fell into a laid back position as she quietly watched the goings on of the herd.

"Alright people, shed unnecessary clothes for bandages, keep the coats, hats and hoods though." Bianca ordered, removing the trench coat to shed the white jumper she wore over a strappy top. The others also removed a layer where possible.

A couple of tops were used to wipe off excess blood, while the others were used to bandage. Bianca's arm had stopped bleeding and was bandaged lightly, the scratches hadn't been deep. A couple of the cuts on Taco that were serious were bandaged, and the rest cleaned up. Neon's leg was marred by three long and deep claw marks, and after the bleeding had slowed down it was bandaged as well.

The herd now looked blood free and as well dressed as fighting hybrids could be. Ant went and sat next to Ash compatibly, and although confused, she didn't complain. Neon played with his wing until it wasn't drooping anymore, and then slumped in his seat, pale and trembling, Zenia sat next to him and sung a song quietly, that he soon joined in with.

Bianca sat next to Kuro, who was holding Taco, and Jason sat next to her, no one talked much.

After about ten minutes Ash stood up.

"This is where we get off." She announced quietly.

"Okay everyone, jump into those trees, well move a bit away from the road and try to get some sleep." The others nodded and leapt singularly or in pairs into the trees by the roadside.

Once all had detangled themselves from the branches and bushes they worked their way steadily into the undergrowth, stopping after a few minutes.

"Lets try and get some sleep, keep warm okay." Bianca yawned and lay down on the leaves by a bush, curling up and wrapping her large fluffy tail around herself.

Ant ran over, pulling Ash along with him by the hand.

"You can't sleep on your own, you'll freeze." He said simply, promptly curling up beside Bianca. Ash lay slightly tensely, unsure what to do, until Neon practically fell to the floor once he detached from Jason and quietly lay beside her. He didn't curl up to her or anything intrusive, and she found herself relaxing into the thin frame. The others all lay down beside them in various places, ensuring Taco was kept warm.

Sleep came swiftly to the strange hybrids collected in the bushes; beggars can't be choosers after all.

::Whoop!

::To the creator of Tam, I'm going to call you 'Unknown' for now, I am going to try to include her in the story, I don't know when it will happen, but I will try to make it not too far away. There is another new character that will be coming in before (because its a promise) but after that I will find a way for Tam to join. You will have to wait several chapters probably, I don't quite know when it will happen, but please be patient and know I will put her in. Also thank you for the extra information, it definitely made me want to put her in that you were dedicated to her.

::Next one up soon hopefully, so please review!

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	5. Chapter 5

I am SO _sorry_! I honestly thought I wasn't going to write any more of this story, but hey its not _all_ my fault. Well okay so initially it was, but then my laptop died and I only recently managed to get a new one and then it took even _longer_ to get word…

Once again, so sorry, that wasn't very great of me since I'm filching your creations, hope you can forgive me guys! So once again credit where credits due, I hope some of you still want to read this, if you do please review, as I'm feeling good about this but I wont go on if there's no one reading!

I had fun with this one, um, I can't remember if I said, but the flock won't appear in this, I doubt I could do them justice! And also, which I also can't remember if I said, I'm going to try and put both Tam and Nano into this story, but hang on guys, might be a few chapters away, sorry!

If anyone still wants to submit characters, I don't mind at all! Just re-read the info in chapter one and please_ please_ try to say how they might like the characters present.

That is all! Again _SO SORRY!_ Enjoy the show!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon.

Maximum fallout: 5

Taco found herself slowly rising into consciousness, blinking around to clear the fog from her vision, se saw herself surrounded by the welcoming sight of the herd.

Sitting up slowly and holding her aching head she smiled around at the sleeping faces that were her family. She ticked them off silently in her head, 'Jason, Kuro, Zenia, Neon, a stranger, Ant, Bian-'

"AH!" she screamed shrilly, the rest of the hybrids jolting awake in varying degrees of panic and pain.

"Quick! Run! An _enemy!_ Zenia, Kuro, Neon, guys get _UP_!"

"Wha-" Was the general startled muttering by the rest of the herd as they scrambled awake in complete disarray. Ash had scooted away from them and was glaring half in shock, half in fear at the thin screaming girl.

Taco's tail had fluffed up to its fullest volume in shock. Zenia and Bianca's tails had about trebled in size and Ant's stood straight on end.

"Taco, what?" Questioned a bemused Jason sleepily, Ant seemed to have grasped the concept however and had run over to secure Ash from her fleeing jerks, ignoring her flinch as he grabbed her arm.

"No! Anthony get away from her now!" Taco commanded shrilly as she tried to stand but found herself too tired to do so. "Bianca _do_ something!"

Bianca however, looked as if she was coming down from a Taco-induced panic attack, so Jason decided to step in.

"No its okay Taco, this is Ash, she helped us escape, I know she looks a bit…erm suspicious, but its fine, really" Taco however was shaking her head in disbelief and horror.

"Oh my God she's _brainwashed_ you! And what's she done to poor Neon?" She accused and questioned shrilly.

Neon was trying to hide behind Zenia, his feathers looking distinctly ruffled as he dragged his leg behind him.

Zenia herself had a hand over her face in aggravation at being woken so violently, the shrieking ringing in her sensitive hears. In fact, Taco looked around to see that they were all in similar poses of discontent and despair at the lack of sleep.

"That was the Erasers, don't you remember? And no one brainwashed anyone, what's wrong with Ash anyway, I'm a wolf too you know." Said Ant sullenly. The rare tone from their youngest member seemed to sober-up the rest of the herd, and calm down Taco.

"Erasers?" The chinchilla questioned unsurely, looking around. "I remember them turning up, but nothing else. I went all psycho again didn't I." She sighed, blinking at the ground.

"Hey it's okay Taco." Bianca soothed as she crawled over to massage the white head. "We kinda think you actually drove hem off."

At the puzzled blue gaze she elaborated.

"You screamed really loud or something, and all the Erasers you were fighting just keeled over."

The whole herd looked even more incredulous with Taco's uncomprehending expression.

"But I don't, remember." She murmured, gazing at the ground. She could joke about it all she wanted, but she hated the long gaps of memory that her bloodlust caused, it felt like being back at the lab. She shuddered slightly.

"Hey there, its alright, you saved us, that's all that matters, okay?" Bianca soothed, wrapping her still extra fluffed tail around the despondent Taco.

Taco sighed and held the warm appendage closer, lost in her own dark thoughts for a while.

Neon stopped hiding behind Zenia, and instead draped himself on the shaking Taco, who grabbed his shirt tightly, Bianca gently unwrapped her tail, as the tension seemed to melt away.

The group turned to face each other.

"We need to go find some food, we haven't eaten for a day." Bianca announced, and stood up, brushing herself off.

"Anyone care to join me?" She asked in an old English accent. Zenia grinned and stood up.

"Indubitably Bianca." She mimicked.

Bianca bent down to Ant. "Make sure things stay cool here okay?" The small boy nodded vigorously and pulled Ash towards the group, who looked like it was the last direction she wanted to go in.

The two feline females strolled purposefully through the wood, sniffing the air hopefully.

"If we were just in a town there should be some sort of Retail Park or something, and that oughta have a restaurant, of some kind." Zenia stated, Bianca nodded in agreement and then twitched to a silent walk as the trees thinned.

They found themselves peering through a wire fencing leading onto a coach car park. Weeds and bushes crept through the fencing before the pristine concrete took over.

"That'll do it." Bianca grinned in response as they gazed up at the giant golden 'M' opposite the coach park.

"There's no point in moving the others, we'll all attract far too much attention together anyway."

"Yeah, that's true," Zenia begun. "But we don't have any money either, and I think we need more then our average dumpster meal after yesterday."

"Hey, what's wrong with dumpster food? It's served us all _so_ well in the past." Bianca joked in sarcastic response, Zenia smirked.

"You're right though, we could all do with a proper meal, hmm. We can't go back for Kuro now…" She trailed off; both cats were gazing with desire at the shinny ATM machine on the side of one of the outlet stores.

They shared an evil grin before they begun leaping over the fence and sprinting across the coach park.

Unfortunately, the two impulsive hybrids weren't blessed with impulsive brains for this sort of thing.

"They'll never notice a few notes gone." Bianca reasoned.

"Yeah, it is supposed to dispense them after all." Zenia added.

"And whoever the owner is must be rolling in it already."

"For all they know we're paying guests."

"We'll only take a couple, just what we need…"

"And we'll put the cover right back…"

With one final excited/apprehensive glance at each other, Bianca extended a severely sharp nail and begun running it around the outside of the ATM, Zenia started pulling on one of its ledges, whilst still trying to keep look out.

Suddenly the whole front came away, Bianca and Zenia fell backwards comically as hundreds of notes flew at them, and a shrill alarm that put even Taco to shame begun piercing the quiet.

"AH!" They both screeched, covering their ears in horror.

"What do we _DO_?!" Zenia shouted over the alarm. Bianca was already scrabbling desperately at the money.

"_QUICK_! Grab the evidence! Hide the money!" She yelled in return. Its just a good thing that cat spliced mutants can move like lightning when they're about to be caught by the police.

In about ten to twenty seconds they'd managed to stuff the money into whatever pockets, hats or undergarments they were wearing, violently kick the ATM cover back over its hole, and sprint full pelt behind the cover of a coach and then the giant 'M' just as security blasted around the corner, guns drawn, and begun to search each and every coach.

They pelted into the fast food store, panting desperately, where thankfully, there was enough noise from eaters and people queuing that even the siren was blocked out.

Zenia and Bianca stared at each other in exhilaration and adrenalin, grinning nervously, before they joined a different queue each.

After about ten tense minutes they reached the desk at the same time, sharing one last glance of apprehension, they begun to order. If there was one thing that would get them noticed, it was this. Luckily they seemed to be being served by two incompetent acne-fied teenage boys. So they did what came naturally.

"Hey there sugar, ya'll wouldn't mind getting me a few things now would ya Hun?" Bianca questioned in a sultry southern accent innocently, leaning on the counter in a revealing manner, and allowing the stray white-blonde hairs that had fallen out of her hat to stay in view.

After 'Dave' as the name tag claimed, had stopped staring alternately at her strappy top and long shining hair, he jumped to attention.

'Like candy from a baby.' She thought merrily.

"Okay let see, I'll have every different type of salad you've got, every one of your fish dishes, vegetarian wraps, vegetarian sandwiches, umm." She paused for a break; 'Dave' was rushing around like a headless chicken, yelling things into the back where an increasing panic was breaking out.

"Three portions of hash browns, lots of salt and salad dressing, but not on any of the salads, just in a pot or something, um about fourteen, no wait sixteen portions of large fries, half vegetarian half not…"

On the desk next to Bianca, Zenia was having similar success, but using different tactics.

In her long dark coat she looked both intimidating and older, which had evidently sparked off 'James's interest. Something she hadn't failed to notice.

"Okay, little boy you get me what I want and you get it _now_ comprede?" She ordered fiercely, causing 'James' to stop drooling and snap to eager and determined.

"Y-yes Ma'am!" He stammered keenly.

"Right, I want _EVERY_ type of meat burger you got, _AND _sandwich, fries, _FIFTEEN _nuggets, _NO_ that's _fourteen_ I said _FIFTEEN_ are you _incompetent_?!"

Both boys were now scrambling about grabbing food onto the counter whilst tripping over themselves ad each other.

The kitchen behind them was utter chaos, and the rest of the customers were all blatantly staring incredulously.

'Oh well, if your gonna go, might as well go big.' Shrugged Bianca, before she saw Dave making vain attempts to fit the food onto trays.

"Oh, no Hun, I'm eating out, sorry sugar!" She announced, and watched Dave's face fall before he gained fresh resilience.

"You got it babe!" He all but screamed as he dived behind the counter, pulling up about twenty bags.

"I said _TAKEOUT, TAKEOUT, TAKEOUT!"_ Yelled Zenia at the helplessly smitten James.

"Coming up doll!"

"_Don't _call me _DOLL_."

"_Yes Ma'am!_" He yelled back on queue.

"Oh, and every vegetarian drink and dessert please Hun! And super-size the _all_!" Bianca cried merrily at Dave's frantic back as he went to grab the fries.

"_EVERY_ dessert boy _and_ all the drinks_ LARGE!_" Zenia bellowed, as James seemed to pirouette between the dispensing shelves and bags.

To their credit, in less than two minutes the whole order had been completed, and Dave and James were slumped on the counter after having deposited the cash in the register.

"Thanks boys!" Bianca and Zenia cooed in unison, each blowing a kiss at the comatose male before strolling out of the shop, waylaid with bags galore.

They had trouble containing their laughter as they sprinted back under bus cover to the barbed wire-topped fence and leaped back over. Luckily there was no sign of the security, but the ATM had been completely removed.

"Did you see their_ faces_!" Zenia exclaimed with difficulty through her laughter. "Oh my God they must have thought we were_ such freaks_! And the best bit is we _are_ and they had _no_ idea!"

Bianca struggled to make a reply through her giggles. "And _you_! Being all _dominatrix_! Oh grief I'll have that image forever! '_TAKEOUT, TAKEOUT, TAKEOUT_'!" She imitated laughing.

They managed to just about get back without falling over and were greeted by a more peaceful scene then when they left.

Ant was platting the hair of an extremely bemused Ash. Taco, Kuro and Neon were recounting some of their favourite fights. But Jason…

"_What_ did you _do_?" The two felines fell silent at once, looking guiltily at the floor. "We could hear the siren from here! If I couldn't have sensed your emotions to tell that you were nearly hysterical with excitement we would have had to come after you!" He accused pointedly, and their good mood deflated at once.

"Were sorry, but we really needed food! And we didn't think and we just got all impulsive…" Bianca trailed off pathetically. Now that she thought back on it, that had been potentially _the_ most idiotic thing to do in their situation. Just short of running into a store and trying to steal the registers from under Dave and James's noses.

"We just, didn't think." She added in despair, dropping the bags to hit her head into her hands, hard.

"Its not_ fair_! Why should we have to sneak around just because of what some morally deranged scientists did to us as kids! Even now that were free we're still hiding!" Zenia yelled in anger, clenching her fists tightly around the paper bags.

Jason sighed in a long-suffering manner. "Look, we all know that it's not fair we have to hide. But. We. _Do_. And robbing a, what was it? ATM? Is not only not hiding, that's beyond what even the _normal_ population should be doing."

He stared at Bianca's blonde hair covering her face and hands, and Zenia's scowl as she glared at a tree to the side as if it had done he a great personal wrong.

"But its over now, and we've all done it. This is just why we don't let you two go food hunting alone." He finished with a smile. Bianca and Zenia looked up at the tall boy in temporary shock before smiling apologetically and sitting down to dole out the food sheepishly.

"Oh yeah," Zenia announced, turning her glance to Ash, who alone was not ransacking the food. "We didn't know if you were meat or vegetable, so we got extra of both just in case."

The wolf-hawk girl stared incredulously, before blushing slightly. "Um, I guess I'm meat…" She said quietly.

"Score!" Announced Kuro gleefully. "Now we're even with the vegetables!"

"Should have known." Muttered Taco darkly, but she didn't appear too hostile.

"We're not vegetables, we're just better people then you." Jason claimed, waving a lettuce leaf around with an air of upper class.

"Yeah right you're just weirder then us." Zenia retorted.

"Ha! Even freakier freaks!" Kuro joined in. Ash let loose a slight smile, and begun devouring a cheeseburger.

"Its okay, we all make mistakes." Neon murmured quietly to Bianca as she prodded a chip savagely.

"Yeah but I should know better, I'm supposed to be good at leading and stuff, that was what _they_ always tried to make me be anyway. Guess I'm just fallout after all."

"Well, I got injured bad, that's not going to help, guess were both failures." They shared a sad smile of brief solidarity.

"And everyone else here are failures too to _them_, otherwise we'd still be in our cages like good little lab rats." Bianca sniggered slightly. "We'll all be fine, I just wish you'd rob a shrimp market next time."

With that he grabbed a salt packet and poured it onto his salad instead of dressing.

After their ravenous feeding frenzy, a state of relaxation broke out. They hadn't ha such a good meal in a long time. Ironically enough, probably not since they left the lab they were rats in.

Thankies for reading! Please review, it helps like nothing else!

Also to those people who's characters are already in the story, if I'm doing anything wrong (or right!) Please know, also any additional information (I love to hear it!).

Oh and in a few chapters (which will hopefully be more regular now) there will be a flashback chapter/s to these guys escaping from the lab (which they al were in together except Ash, because that's just easier!)

So! If you know who you want them to have been in a crate next to (e.g. which herd member) Or if it was someone who died that left an impact etc (but no new characters please, you already have one! Unless it's a sibling). Or any particular horrible test for them… I know you've all given me excellent backgrounds already, it's just in case you had any extra thoughts, if not then that's fine though too!

Basically any info possible pleasey!

Sorry to be a pain, thanks for reading! shadowtheo.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon.

Credit for other characters where it's due. On with the show!

Maximum Fallout: 6

One minute everything was fine. The next, something was very, very wrong. The trees around them fell silent as the grave, birds and even insects making not even the slightest ruffle.

Bianca bolted to her feet. Why none of the herd had picked up on the disturbance, she had no idea. They all stayed silent as they climbed to their feet. Bianca saw Taco cast a hostile glance at Ash, who was pointedly trying to ignore her glare.

There were no sudden movements, and still the un-earthly silence continued.

"Let's graze guys." She murmured so quietly that only they were likely to hear her. The code was understood by all but Ash to signify melting away silently, but she soon picked up on their subtle moves and silence as they edged away between trees.

Silent as shadows they crept backwards and sideways, edging towards the retail park.

Everyone's ears twitched a the smallest rustle, the faintest breath. Bianca glanced around as they reached the fence. The metal pressed against their backs as they stared back at the ghostly, shadowed wood.

Taco was breathing heavily, her pupils shrinking, Ant was deftly clutching her sleeve. Jason had a look of stony calm that he was probably projecting mainly for the sake of the shaky Neon who he was supporting, the bird hated being unable to fly.

Zenia glared at the bushes, trying desperately to pick up any trace of thoughts. Bianca could tell by her frustrated expression that she wasn't getting as much as static.

Kuro was staring calculatingly at the busses and the wood, deducing something that was beyond the others. Ash looked paler then usual, but determined, at least as far as Bianca could tell. She was quite stoic really.

A twig snapped sharply, and all eight mutants lurched over the fence, panting in panic they stared back at the now silent wood.

"What's going on?" Ant asked shakily, Bianca heard the fear in his voice and carefully pushed him slightly behind her with her tail. Although, to be truthful, she was scared herself.

Jason's slightly tenser then normal posture told her that he was struggling with all of their fear pressing on him.

Erasers charging full-throttle at them, fine. Silence beyond comprehension, that was abnormal. Abnormal wasn't good.

She growled at herself in her head. She should be able to smell, hear or see _something_. Her family was frightened and she had no clue what to do.

They could run away from the wood. But that would be into the open and maybe into a trap. They could go back to the wood with the intention of fighting/scouting, but that was positively deadly if there were a new branch of shockingly sneaky Erasers lurking inside.

She could practically taste the tension from the herd, and hated herself for not knowing what to do. 'This is why I shouldn't be the leader' she thought bitterly 'this is why Jason should do it, I can't even get us any food without nearly getting us arrested, I'm just useless.'

The snow leopard was horrified to realise that not only had she been un-alert for a few seconds, but also that there was a prickling growing in her eyes.

She swiped angrily at her eyes, almost scratching herself as she glared at the wood viciously. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Jason's all too knowing glance. 'Damn psychics.'

"Anyone got the correct fare?" Kuro's off-handed question made the group jump and swing around. As they stared blankly at him, they didn't notice several of the shadows in the wood condensing.

Kuro shrugged and grinned at their uncomprehending expressions.

"I just thought we could take a ride." He explained indicating the large coach bus behind him. "But it seems the drivers gone...what a shame!"

They continued to stare in bewildered amusement as the lynx casually leant against the side of the coach.

The faintest, almost imperceptible white crackling white light skimmed the bus where his fingertips brushed it. In about a second the engine had ground into life and the doors sprung open, just as the forest erupted with great bulking shapes that begun sprinting towards them.

"RUN!" Bianca yelped unnecessarily, and they scrambled into the bus just as the upgrade-erasers cleared the fence with none of their usual gracelessness.

The herd stared horrified at the strangely elongated erasers; Taco let out a small scream and buried herself in Jason, who looked like he had crawled into a nightmare, not a bus.

"_No_!" Bianca screeched as she saw the salivating fangs of an upgrade-eraser appear around the door of the bus.

Launching into action she sprung over the back of the seat to block the door, flinging out her arm she gashed the snarling snout deeply, only to find little reaction of pain.

The upgrade-eraser swung its ugly grinning face back at her.

"Nice try Blondie." It growled savagely. She was so taken aback that she ducked too late at the clawed paw that slashed across her face.

As her temple smashed against the bus door her spotted vision caught the herd screaming and scrambling to reach her. Clawed hands grabbed at the front of her clothes, tearing them as if they were paper before she received another punch to the head.

As the arm retracted, she desperately bit down into it as she felt herself being pulled from the bus.

The eraser's scream of shock and pain suddenly increased ten-fold. Bianca opened her eyes to see that a _real_ wolf had clamped it's own jaws around the eraser's throat.

The snow leopard kicked out violently at her attacker's chest, her shock-absorbing legs barely registering the power used.

As she and the wolf felt the howling eraser falling from them they let their jaw-holds slip.

The wolf landed and morphed back into Ash. As it clicked slowly in Bianca's head the wolf/hawk/girl dragged her away from the door that mercifully slammed shut.

A sudden crash alerted the herd to a fresh problem however. Zenia, Neon, Ant and Taco screamed as the windows around them shattered.

"_Kuro!_" Screamed Bianca as the door shattered too, vaguely she registered Ash screaming too.

The lynx stopped gaping at the generally fatal chaos and sprung to action. Leaping in one swift movement to the front of the bus he slammed his hands down onto it, hard.

There was a blinding flash of white light and the bus launched itself forwards, the upgrade-erasers scattering like flies.

Kuro looked shocked at his own power as Jason dashed to the front and violently swung the steering wheel around to avoid the giant 'M' even as the happy burger eaters gaped and screamed at the scene they had just seen.

Only when the herd reached the relative safety of the open, and thankfully fairly empty, road, did they manage to breath again.

The coach door flapped fairly uselessly as Bianca and Ash painfully crawled back to the safer seating area.

"Thanks." Bianca said breathlessly, staring at Ash's slightly wide, odd-eyes.

The dark haired girl smiled genuinely, the motion lit up her whole face.

"No problem." She replied, looking happier and more fulfilled then Bianca had ever seen her. Even if that had only been for like, a day.

"B-Bianca, y-you're bleeding." Taco stuttered out with shocked eyes. Zenia and Neon sat up to see better, Ant looked over and emitted a small whimper, covering his eyes. He didn't really like blood. Well none of them _loved_ it, for obvious reasons.

"Yeah." Kuro muttered, staring and then quickly snapping his attention away. "And you're…kinda,_ exposed_ as well…" He trailed off awkwardly.

Bianca glanced down, through her flyaway blonde hair and blood, the tattered remains of her strappy top hung pointlessly around her waist.

"Ah!" She cried embarrassedly, clutching her trench coat tightly around her and ducking her head, her red-stained white blonde fringe covering her red face.

Jason was pointedly not staring in the rear-view mirror, Kuro looked like he was trying to fight between laughing and running away as he gently grabbed Ant from his curled position.

"Come on little guy, this is where we men leave the battlefield." He announced loudly to hide the tension.

"But why? Bianca's hurt, we should help!" Came the insisting reply.

"I'm telling you, this is a women moment… At least," He glanced back teasingly at Bianca. "That's unless _you want_ help B?"

"No! Go _away_!" The snow leopard cried, horrified.

"See, told you, never argue with ladies Ant, remember that. Hey! You're coming too Pinky!" Kuro commanded and Neon dragged himself to the front dutifully, although he glanced back curiously before he saw all four girls glaring at him.

"Come on, Bianca." Zenia toned softly as she saw the half-tears forming in the snow leopard's bright eyes.

The girls huddled at the back of the bus with their scant first-aid equipment (water bottles and the remains of Bianca's top.)

"Great." Bianca muttered morosely. "I bet I just became the first poster-girl for mutant monthly."

"Yeah, S&M edition." The other three stared in amused shock at Ash before they started laughing, Ash smiling in embarrassed recognition.

"Don't worry, it's not like they haven't seen it before. I saw some pretty questionable sites listed on Kuro's laptop that made them all act very fishy when I repeated them." Taco announced conspiratorially, making them all burst out laughing again, looking back at the forcedly fixed looks of concentration on the guys faces as they talked about roads.

Ant however, waved back at them innocently. Bianca beamed back at him, she loved that little wolf-hybrid.

"Come on now, lets clean you up before they get the chance to apply for the job of dressing you for the funeral." Zenia remarked casually, sending them into fits again. Amazing what a shock can do to your level of amusement.

"What was with those erasers?" Jason questioned the rest of the guys quietly, not wanting to further freak out the girls. Not that he believed that he was any less freaked then they were.

"They had a much lankier frame, longer arms and legs, thinner waists and necks. It was like they'd been stretched." Kuro listed off, closing his eyes.

"They didn't seem to feel as much pain, even though its body moved as if it did hurt." Neon added in a shuttered voice, he was shuddering slightly. Back at the lab he'd been the favourite chew toy of the erasers, and often used as a training prop for the fresh ones.

"I hate them, they look like they've been stitched together to look more like us." Ant rushed out.

And that was a bad thought. Kuro shivered slightly, even though it was fairly hot. They had been so stealthy back in the wood that not even the herd could sense them. That sure as hell didn't bode well.

"That's not it either. Their emotions are more, focused somehow, it's sinister really, and I couldn't even entirely tell _what_ they were feeling. Something like calm excitement." Jason shook his head in frustration; he couldn't shake the abnormally focused evil that he'd felt.

"They were intelligent." Neon said in sudden realisation.

"That's right, they knew what to do, they hid and drove us into the open, and then they shattered the windows _before_ they tried to get in. Usually they'd just jump through them." Ant added, shocked.

He hated those monsters, and these ones looked even more like they'd belong in a horror movie. He'd never run away, or leave his family, but he really hated them. And now they'd hurt Bianca badly too.

"Why won't they just leave us alone, we don't go hunting for them." He muttered sullenly.

"Maybe we should." Kuro murmured, they others swung around violently to look at him, Jason turning the steering wheel so violently that the bus swerved violently.

"Whoa!" Kuro yelled as they found themselves on the floor when Jason tried to desperately correct the screeching vehicle.

There was a collective scream from the back as all the girls fell over too.

"Crap!" Jason exclaimed as he swerved back and there was an audible 'clunk' and stuttering noise.

Kuro desperately slammed his hands onto the floor. But instead of slowing the bus, with a burst of static light it surged forwards.

The herd screamed as the bus hurtled off a bend in the road and spun over, crashing upside down as it rolled down a bank.

The next few seconds were a blank haze in memory of lurches and fear as the bus eventually skidded to a halt on a stone covered construction area near the road.

Ash groaned as she lifted herself gingerly from the seat she'd fallen across, realising the bus was sideways.

Swiftly she ascertained 'no broken bones, no deep bleeding gashes' and looked around.

At the front the lynx (Kuro?) was looking pained both physically and emotionally as he tried to gently rouse consciousness into the flamingo (Neon maybe?), who was comatose, arms wrapped loosely around the chalk-white, trembling Ant.

Jason (she thought) was cringing as he pulled himself from the shattered window beneath him. Ash could see the flashes of light glinting off a few shards of glass embedded in his back.

Behind her, Bianca panted desperately, holding the hostile chinchilla (Taco was it?) close as she stared wide-eyed in shock, a large bruise on her temple. Zenia was coughing violently, and gasping as she sat up and grabbed Bianca's shoulder, holding her chest painfully.

Ash felt her ears twitch to attention as cries of alarm could be heard distantly from outside.

"Ash," She heard Bianca pant, the bloodstain on the front of her trench coat starting to grow.

The winged girl clambered closer over the side of the seats as Bianca weakly hauled herself and taco upright, grabbing Zenia's hand to help her too.

"Grab the first aid, then scout!" She said panicked, the voices were drawing closer, even if they were still a way off.

Ash quickly located the first aid box and snatched it. She climbed slightly clumsily to the shattered window above them, deduced which way the voices were coming from, and ducked back down.

"Get out at the top of the bus, we have to cross the road away from the builders." Bianca nodded, and motioned Zenia to start climbing too.

Ash jumped down onto the gravelly ground before falling to her knees and scrambling up to make sure Zenia was ok as she dropped down too.

Bianca then emerged, struggling, onto the top of the bus, and carefully lowered the shell-shocked Taco. Ash caught her without question and let her slump carefully against the bus.

A few seconds later Zenia had dashed to the front of the bus as Ant was lowered to her by Neon before he practically fell off the bus and crumpled to the ground. He made a couple of struggled attempts at standing before he managed.

Shortly after, Bianca emerged again, this time with Kuro as they supported the flinching Jason between them.

Ash scooped up Taco and ran to help. The shouts were very close by the time they had finished, and far in the distance sirens were screeching.

"Quick, cross the road, get to those rocky outcrops and we can rest." Bianca panted, bending double. Ash could see a glaze to her icy eyes, an unhealthy paleness to her skin as she clutched her bleeding chest.

Ant managed to clamber to his feet and started loping steadily forwards. Taco also dethatched herself from Ash, and after a gesture from Bianca, staggered forwards too.

Zenia wrapped an arm around Neon, and he imitated the gesture. They leaned on each other as they followed the two youngest.

Ash moved forwards to help support Jason instead of Bianca, who was shaking badly. Jason's face was etched with pain and anger, the razor sharp shards shifted as he moved.

Miraculously, the whole herd managed to cross the road and reach a far outcrop of rock that concealed a cave looking over endlessly rolling green hills.

Ash felt a sense of pride and fulfilment at the fact that she had helped these other mutants reach safety, an odd fondness had formed inside her for all of them, even in such a short time.

And as they sat in the cave, cleaning each other's cuts and calming each other down, there was a sense of solidarity that she had never felt.

Especially when, the now much more recovered Taco came over to her and gently washed a cut on her cheek she hadn't even realised was there.

"Thanks." Was the slight girl's soft and only word. Ash had smiled at her gently, and received one back.

As they all huddled at the back of the cave together as rain begun pouring down, it hardly mattered that they had just gone through an attack/escape/crash.

They'd deal with it tomorrow.

Yay! There you go, another! Thanks for the response last time, hope I get some this time too!

Oh yeah, I will try to use the character Shayne, but it won't be for a while I'm afraid…quite a while sorry! I have a lot of characters to put in already, and I don't want to get too many too soon as I want to make sure everyone knows these ones before I get to know new ones, as it gets very confusing!

Any extra info on characters is always wonderful, plus corrections, or anything! Other then that, please let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon. Credit for other characters where it's due.

**IMPORTANT!:** **Sorry**! That this took so long, but you people _really_ need to review! This is actually one of my favorite stories, but last time I updated SO FEW of you reviewed! I don't expect many, but I would at least expect the people whose characters I'm using to give me SOME encouragement, I'm starting to think just why should I bother if you're not interested? Its very depressing for me that I spend time writing something for you to enjoy, and you can't even tell me you liked it! Or even that you didn't like it! There were a couple of amazing reviews from people, and to them thankyou! It makes my day! But if you others wont read my story, or show interest in your characters, then I might just start killing people :( !

San child of the wolves: Thanks for the encouragement! I enjoy writing Ash, so I'm glad to have got her down ok, I hope she's still okay hehe! And thanks for all the extra info too, I'll probably have loads more questions, so sorry if I start to bug you!

Beastboysbeauty: Yay! I'm glad you enjoyed! And I can't remember if I replied but yes Ant can have a photographic memory, I'll get it in there somehow! And his other powers too!

Shayne Rider: Look! I've written more! I said I would! Glad you're still intrigued hehe. And pssst! If you have any ideas how you want Shayne to meet the herd, then please let me know, I will make it happen soon as I can, but I need some ideas how to make it happen if you can help please!

Maxridenut: I have! Hehe, and I hope you enjoy! BTW I like mirage and would like to use her if I could, it might be a while away but still! But, do you have any ideas for her background, and who she might find it easy to get along with on the team/how they'd meet, if you don't then please don't worry, its just easier if I know what you do/don't want so I don't ruin her! I wouldn't want to do that!

Maximum Fallout: 7.

The sun from outside woke the shattered mutants from their restless sleep. Slowly they groaned into action.

Kuro was the first to wake fully, and stared around at his family, trying to assess the damage he felt responsible for.

Jason was lying on his stomach, not even really trying to move; even breathing seemed to aggravate his bandaged back.

Kuro himself wasn't really hurt at all, just a bit bruised and scraped. But that only made him feel worse, it was exactly the same as when he'd been at the lab. It just made him remember how much more he had to learn about controlling his powers. At the lab where he'd somehow gained these powers, the scientists only ever tried to stress him into producing them, not controlling them.

Zenia coughed slightly as she sat up, gently rubbing her bruised chest as she blinked slowly around at the others. She seemed much more lethargic then usual.

Taco was gently brushing Ant's hair off his face, he looked thoughrally fed up and downhearted. At least they weren't hurt badly either, Kuro couldn't stand it when either of them in particular got hurt, they always seemed so young.

Even though Taco and Zenia were nearly the same age, there always seemed like such a huge difference between them, and Ant was like a little brother to him.

Bianca cringed as she sat up; she was paler then usual having lost a lot of blood, and every movement seemed slower and more cautious then usual.

Neon was sitting with his head leaning on his arms, his wings flared out behind him as if to catch a breeze.

Ash seemed all right, but tired and a bit groggy as she rolled over and groaned at the sun slightly. But maybe she was just feeling more comfortable with them all. Kuro hoped so; _something_ good had to have come out of this right?

He sighed and stood up, walking over to where they had left the bags the night before. Most of their water was now gone, having been used for cleaning, and they were once again in need of new clothes, having used more of them as bandages when the one in the first aid kit ran out. The remaining coats, hats and trousers were all blood stained, the underwear probably was too.

They also had very little food, a couple of crushed sandwich things from yesterday, and that was it. They'd need to get some soon or their wounds would never heal.

Kuro mentally kicked himself before reminding himself that it wouldn't help. Looking around again at his still waking family, Kuro begun putting his brain to work. Eventually he walked over to Ash.

"Hey, we need to find some food and water, do you reckon you could help me look?" Not knowing even the girls age made him feel slightly strange about asking her for the favour, but then, age wasn't everything.

The girl's odd eyes lit up happily with purpose.

"Not a problem!" She replied happily, and scrambled eagerly to her feet, running to the entrance of the cave as she yelled back at him. "Wait here, I'll be back in a sec!"

Kuro blinked on in shock as she suddenly jumped and morphed into a striking hawk before flapping hard to gain height outside the cave.

The lynx blinked appreciatively at the ability before surveying the herd again.

By now, Neon was glaring enviously at the take off, his wings on the floor in the dejected knowledge that he couldn't fly at the moment. Even though his leg was half healed already, he couldn't run to take off, or land safely, and what with the head wound and the blood loss flying wasn't safe. He probably would have been trying to anyway though, if it weren't for Kuro being awake.

Jason still lay on his stomach, the same grimace of pain and frustration etched on his face. Kuro tried to ignore the pang of guilt as Jason blinked up at him, he knew the older mutant wouldn't blame him, none of them would, but that only made him feel worse.

He nodded at the tired Bianca as she crawled over to change Jason's bloody bandages to the ones they'd kept spare. She pointedly ignored Jason's frustrated growl at the attention.

"Where's Ash?" The subdued tone and dull eyes shocked Kuro, it took a lot for Bianca to loose the 'all good all the time' mask she wore, and even more for her to let her insecurities show through about leading the herd, but whenever it happened Kuro could barely stand watching. The girls he lived with were usually all so strong, just like his sister, and he hated seeing them weak, unhappy. In his mot childlike dreams he saw all of the herd happily living in some suburban neighbourhood, and the only fret he would see Bianca going through was when she had to take her 2.4 kids to school when they didn't want to go.

He blinked the sad certainty that that would never happen away, and explained the new herd member's whereabouts.

Bianca nodded listlessly, Kuro could almost hear 'I should have been the one doing that, I'm just useless' going round in her head.

"I'm fine." Jason almost spat out at the pain of his bandages being removed.

"Shh, just relax." Bianca replied despondently, carefully peeling off bandages whilst her eyes were somewhere else, the brightness in them something only Kuro would have noticed.

The lynx turned around and glanced at Taco and Ant, who had now woken up fully.

Ant was fiddling with an emerald necklace that he always wore, he'd had it since forever, even at the lab he had cried and screamed whenever it was taken from him so it had been left on.

Kuro had suspicions that it was the only thing left that could connect him to his parents, but he didn't voice it. Ant may be content with the herd as a family, Taco and Zenia being sister figures whilst Bianca played a surrogate mother role, and Jason, Neon and himself as brothers, but every child his age wants a family, and any talk of parents upset him.

Taco had evidently seen Ant's behaviour, and was now fiddling with her own necklace, a simple but pretty cross made from opal. It was the only thing she had left of the family she could just remember, after seeing them murdered at age five.

Kuro didn't miss the slight shine to her eyes either, as she stopped moving the cross and just gazed at it sadly.

His own sister had helped them all escape from the lab, he didn't know whether she was alive or not, he shook his head trying not to think of it. Why they were all so downhearted today he didn't know, but they all seemed to get into the same mood shifts as each other, he supposed that had both its good and bad parts.

Zenia was pacing slightly like a caged animal, she didn't like caves very much, out of the few they had stayed in she usually slept outside, caves and cages weren't spaced very far in her mind. The only reason she'd stayed in this one was probably because it was considerably larger then their previous cave experiences.

A flapping at the mouth of the cave distracted most of them from their morbid thoughts. Ash blinked at the downcast atmosphere, seemed quite content herself.

"Uh, I found a stream, it looks quite clean so it should be fine to drink." Kuro and Zenia leaped at the opportunity to move and grabbed a bag each, stuffing the water bottles inside them.

Ash morphed back into a hawk, and after an only slightly ungraceful takeoff led the way to the stream.

Zenia and Kuro ran at, a calm pace for them, but stressful for and normal human being, following the far off form of a hawk cast against the cerulean sky.

Zenia leapt with ease over a slope, landing on the other side with amazing precision, her hair flew around her face and her coat trailed behind her.

The bright green grass around them almost seemed from a painted picture with the perfectly blue sky above them. Rarely did they get to enjoy freedom of movement like this when they weren't in a fight.

The female feline let out a sincere laugh as she leapt again and got caught by the wind, getting propelled further.

Glancing up she made sure that the strange hawk girl was still in her vision, and then put on a burst of speed, leaving Kuro behind temporarily as she sprinted ahead.

A small hill appeared before her, and with an intense grin of excitement she dashed up it at full speed.

Pushing off from the top of the hill the ground flew away from her as her jump propelled her further, faster.

The familiar weightless feeling caught the agile body as she descended to the ground still quite far below.

Zenia laughed as the feeling caught her, 'must be close to flying' she thought, and stretched her arms out like a bird before she landed.

Her shock absorbing legs had barely touched the floor and sunk to the impact before they propelled her into the air again in a series of long low leaps along the downhill ground.

"Ha ha!" Zenia laughed aloud as she picked up speed. 'Who wants to be normal anyway!' she thought jubilantly, 'when I can do this!'

Landing from a leap she gave a short sprint, the incline increasing her speed even more, and pushed off with all the power she could.

Whilst airborne, the puma girl twisted in the air, catching another brief glance of impossible blue sky with another laugh before twisting to land and leap further.

Zenia loved this, the freedom, in rare moments like these she could really appreciate the DNA she was combined with, really believe she was changed for the better, if she could just run, jump, further, faster, higher and never stop, barely pausing a beat in her steps.

Running as fast as she could, as far as she could, for once exhaust herself completely in enjoyment, be so completely in control of her actions that it felt out of control. That she might for once go too fast, jump too far, make some small error in calculating a jump that she fell.

Not hard enough to hurt, just to know her limits, so that the next time she could push it further and further, just get faster, higher, further. A song she had once heard along those lines played back disjointedly in her mind.

Grinning so much it hurt and laughing without worrying how loud it was, Zenia glanced above her, seeing her pinprick silhouette above her soaring on the wind currents with ease and twitching subtly to change direction.

Zenia turned on one foot, barely gracing the ground in between steps now as she ran faster.

Her long jet-black tail swung deftly behind her acting as a lightweight rudder and balance as she sprinted, her feet nearly falling behind her in her downhill speed.

'Faster, faster, _faster!_' She thought, and suddenly one of her feet tripped in the speed, an ecstatic look graced her as her body fell towards the ground.

And Zenia let herself fall, tumbling and turning the short remainder of the hill to roll gently onto flatter ground.

Completely exhilarated, a calm, soothing feeling of rest came over her, a sort of relaxation at having pushed herself so completely.

She gazed up at the perfect sky again, laughing with the adrenalin come down, purple eye holding a lightness that they rarely possessed.

Zenia enjoyed the melting happiness she was feeling, her mind was at peace away from the constant thoughts she had to block out, and her body was peaceful from for once getting enough exercise.

Her mind wandered back to her herd as she saw Ash wheeling overhead, making an almost worried screeching sound, she waved lazily up at the bird girl.

She didn't like dogs very much, but Ash seemed calm and laid back enough to not worry her, and she envied anyone who could fly, but admired them too. As much as she hated the lab and the white-coats, as soon as she'd met Neon she'd wished that they had made her fly too.

She'd have to bring Neon out here once he had recovered more, he'd enjoy flying out here, maybe he'd even glide with her for a bit. They tried to do this whenever Neon had the room to take off and gain enough speed and height to give her a decent flight before running out of said height and speed. This place would be perfect.

It was perfect, for Zenia anyway, she _hated_ that cave, but if it was nice she could sleep outside. Maybe they could stay here for a while?

Deep down, Zenia knew she was being unrealistic, but she couldn't care right now.

And as Kuro came leaping down the hill like she had, but with slightly more care, a worried and exasperated, but amused expression on his face, and his hood down with his ears showing, because out here there was no one to see, she knew he was enjoying the freedom too.

"I should of known you'd go and do your mad running again, come on, lets go get that water, mad cat."

"You do know your only insulting your own kind there right genius?" Zenia mocked pleasantly as she got to her feet with no trace of tiredness.

"And here I thought you were the brains of the outfit."

"Well when the outfits composed of you and the doom crew back at the cave I'd say there isn't much competition."

Zenia laughed softly as they climbed a small hill to see a shining stream beneath them, and she once again found herself thinking 'perfect, and next time I'll have to make it to this stream instead of that hill.'

"I like it here," she stated softly, and at Kuro's nervous glance added, "I _know_ we wont be able to stay forever, but, can we at least _try_ and convince the others to stay for a while, at least till there better, its relaxing."

It was probably more the prolonged length of speech then anything else that had Kuro smiling in agreement. But he suddenly gasped in mock shock and horror.

"Even with the cave?" He asked, with a panicked expression.

"Yes genius even with the _cave_, now can we get the water already? Or can you just not keep up?" She flashed a mischievous grin and leapt down the hill to reach the stream.

She heard Kuro laugh at her sarcastic tone before joining her.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind staying either…but we might have to get you cat-girls to go out hunting, after all, I'm _way_ to important to dirty myself with rabbit gore."

"Eww you chauvinistic male!" Zenia berated sarcastically, pushing Kuro downstream whilst he laughed. She could have sworn she heard a small squawk of laughter from above as well, as a sodden Kuro pulled himself gracelessly from the stream and mock glared at her before shaking violently, spraying them both with water.

:: Woop! Finally another chapter! Now this time REVIEW all you lazy people! Or I'll make them all drown in the stream! Please I mean it! And your reviews always mean a lot, however short, and help me write quicker!

::shadowtheo…_pleasepleaseplease _review! I don't even care if I'm begging hehe!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination

::Thank you so much if you reviewed! New character-wise, Jessie, Tam, Shayne, and Chrissy (a new one!) will be put in this story, so please be patient and supportive!

::Similarly, I don't know how many more new characters I can use after that, as there may be too many to write decently, so if anyone makes a new character please think it through carefully, or if you don't mind your character appearing and then disappearing in the story, or something along those lines, or going into a new group (if I get many more and finish this story I may do another similar one you see). On with the show!

Maximum Fallout: 8 Flight

Evening stained the sky as the herd crammed in the back of the cave to keep warm.

It was freezing, and they were hungry, the downside of caves to houses and tree-insulated woods were starting to show.

"I think I've forgotten what warmth feels like…" Taco complained in a demoralized voice.

"Hmmm, I'm not that cold." Ant commented, wrapped in his fluffy tail. Kuro ruffled his hair, looking completely at home with the cold as well.

"And Ash isn't cold are you?" Ant questioned eagerly, he seemed to have gravitated to the fellow canine.

"I am a bit…" Ash supplied cautiously, and she was, in her human form, but she didn't want to risk wolf morphing when her and the smallest female were beginning to get along.

Bianca extended her long, thick furred tail so that it covered Taco, Neon and Zenia. The latter two where huddled together shivering, and swiftly leaned into the warmth.

Jason was looking grumpy as he slumped against the snow leopard, whose arms were wrapped firmly around him to prevent escape. He didn't mind so much really though, it had been years after all since the two had been this close for this long, Bianca had used to cling to him all the time when she could at the lab, before it was beaten out of her. It was a nice return.

The hunger however, was something they all shared, and it was steadily getting worse.

Whenever this was brought up however, the same question was raised, where could they find food? Joking aside they didn't want to hunt their own dinner, and it was too dark to do so anyway, when they didn't know what to do or how to look for it.

They had considered stealing from the construction site across the road, but that amount of food, for a prolonged time, when there was still a police investigation going on about the bus crash…it just wouldn't work.

Eventually they decided to eat the few sandwiches that had been saved, but it was barely enough for eight starving hybrids.

Sleep came early and with much discontent, everyone crammed together in a protective heap around the people who were cold sensitive. Bianca's long tail wrapped around the outside as far as it could.

The morning was therefore greeted once again by several cramped and starving mutants, all bundled up in a tangle. Ash delicately peeled herself from Ant who clung to Jason instead, not wanting to move.

Kuro was pleased to see Bianca had got over her bad mood of the day before, as she stood and straightened her trench coat in a businesslike manner. She seemed to have developed cabin fever like the rest of them.

"Somewhere around here there must be food enough for eight hungry freaks, lets go a-looking!" The blonde announced with a flourish, and glanced dubiously at the herd, calculating who could and couldn't stand.

"Jason, Neon, sorry guys, you're stuck here, we need to guard the base anyway." The two looked slightly mutinous, but Bianca's brisk mood was her way of saying 'listen or its on your own thick skulls when you're found in a ditch', so they didn't openly complain. She had the grace to look apologetic however, which seemed to soothe their egos somewhat.

"Ash, can you see what you can see from the air?" Ash nodded simply, feeling the pleasant feeling she had come to associate with being appreciated when Bianca grinned at her.

"The rest of you seem fine and dandy too, so as long as you're feeling ok it's all good! And I'll-"

"Stay here too." Jason finished shortly.

"Wha-? B-but! No, why?!" Bianca wined, at Jason's 'final' sort of voice.

"In case you'd forgotten, you nearly bled out too, and we wouldn't want you flashing the public with your lack of undergarments either." Jason added with a small smirk.

"I am capable of doing up buttons ya know!" Bianca retorted, nevertheless moving away from the entrance to the cave.

"_Please please_ find clothes, I wanna go outside!" She moaned, and sat down with her arms rested on her legs, a sulky expression on her face.

Kuro grinned, he knew this sulk, like her bad mood, wouldn't stay for long, and set off with Taco in tow, Ant following Zenia.

An exhausted search party returned later to find Bianca, Jason and Neon slumped around the cave in a state of near-fatal boredom, the herd's pack of cards scattered around in a haphazard way, evidently a small fight had occurred. Bianca liked to cheat at cards, Jason worked out all the maths in his head to an annoying level of accuracy, and Neon couldn't win against a two year-old, so it was always doomed to failure.

Neon leapt on Zenia the moment she came through the cave entrance, and they sat outside enjoying the early sunset.

"What have I told you about playing cards?" Kuro sighed in a long-suffering tone, but stopped upon receiving two mutinous looks from the other two mutants.

Fortunately, as they still had plenty of money from the ATM heist, they had managed to find a large shopping centre not too far away to buy clothes and food provisions for a couple of days. So the mood lifted considerably after that, as Jason and Bianca begun merrily sorting the food into amounts for as many days as they could.

_::Fallout::_

The next couple of days the herd spent recuperating. They may despise being cooped up for too long in one place, or having to do anything too structured, but even they knew when they had to take time off to heal. And they had had enough fights to discover how to do just that.

After two days at the cave that had become their temporary home, a system seemed to have worked itself out.

The eight mutants took turns in pairs of varying couples to perform several simple tasks such as collecting water from the stream and washing the few clothes the herd had managed to spare wearing in order for a much needed wash. During this time everyone made sure to give each other more personal space then usual, after the regimented and fairly skimpy clothes of the lab they were all, if not picky, protective of the clothes they wore, and feeling slightly less protected then usual.

In the past on 'washing days' as they called them, the herd had learnt that even its more placid members were liable to start fights if they were feeling unsure of the situation. They were part wild animal after all, so defensive behaviour in uncertain situations happened naturally, but if it could be avoided then it would be.

Guarding the cave, or rather observing for danger was swapped between pairs, as was dressing and cleaning wounds for the more severe wounds, but even thy were healing up by now.

As the mutants recovered they ventured outside the cave more to ensure their muscles didn't cramp up from not being used. After all, they required more exercise then regular humans in order to keep fit and at the peak of their athletic ability, slipping from that had consequences that none of them would recover from, literally.

"Eew…" Complained Taco after their fourth day in the cave, all of them were pretty much healed completely by now, ah the joys of being genetically engineered. "I _so_ need to was my hair."

Taco fingered her once white, and sow heavily stained locks.

"How could I possibly fight an eraser looking like this?" She joked lightly. "But seriously, can I _please_ go wash it in the stream?" She looked imploringly around as the relaxing mutants.

Bianca dragged her own knotted hair around her shoulder. Not that she would admit it in front of _any_ of the mutants, she'd be mocked for weeks, but secretly she was very proud of her long white-blonde hair, and was slightly downtrodden to see it like this.

"Well, we ought to look our best, otherwise we might start to look like the erasers, and that would be _very_ bad." She announced to Taco's laugh. "So yeah, why not!"

A few minutes later the four female mutants were jumping and leaping down to the stream, enjoying the freedom they now possessed. Bianca wondered if they too were all a bit vain about their hair, secretly she hoped so, even among your own kind it was easy to feel left out sometimes.

But right now, as the wind caught her mid leap, she found it hard to imagine being lonely. As they all sped down a long hill to the stream, all of them caught in the distance of their jumps and the softness of their landings, laughing together, Bianca loved these moments where they could feel every fibre of their beings working in perfect synchronisation to create their movements. She loved the sense of power that barely feeling a landing gave her, making her want to leap down cliffs just to see if she could, just like a real snow leopard.

She'd once watched a documentary on one, just standing outside a TV store in fascination for an hour whilst it played through, showing these beautiful and powerful creatures that she'd been created out of, and she'd been filled with both a longing to go and join these superb creatures, and the depressing knowledge that she couldn't.

That knowledge however only made her want to go further, if she couldn't live with them, then she could at least try to be just as flawless as them, and then maybe she would manage to find somewhere where her herd could live in peace as well. Whenever she thought of this, a childish vision of perfection filled her, mountains with lakes and surrounded by plains and trees, somewhere for each of them to feel at home. And although she knew it was impossible, she still clung to that image for hope if nothing else.

In the meantime, she'd just have to settle with becoming the fastest, most powerful, most beautiful snow leopard she could be. After all, other then her hair, she hated her human appearance. The human felt the pain, the human was the part that couldn't let go of the memories of the lab, the human thought of 'I can't do this' was the one that held her back. She hated being human.

With an angry leap she sprung forwards high into the air, the air whipped around her, sending strands of her blonde hair whipping around her face, the sunlight dazzled her view of the sky and ground, the stream becoming almost blinding with the glare of the light flaring off it.

The landing felt as soft as hitting a mattress, and she smiled softly, at least she was anything but ordinary, she at least had that going for her.

The female mutants soon arrived at the stream, and after a little discussion of how best they could all wash their hair, a plan was formed.

The sun beat down on the four girls, shrouding them in heat. Bianca and Zenia lay on one side of the stream on their backs, hair trailing harmlessly into the water, Ash and Taco lay on the other side mimicking the behaviour.

Making sure they were spaced far enough apart, the gentle current of the stream washed the impurities from the mutant's hair.

The relaxing feeling soon had both the feline females gazing around in a satisfied and dazed sort of way, absorbed in the calm motion of the water.

Taco and Ash took a little longer to completely relax, but soon they felt the effects of the hot sun and cool water as well.

"So, I was thinking…" Zenia started with a glance at Bianca's relaxed expression, "that we could maybe, stay here for a while."

Ice shadow eyes opened to look back into her amethyst ones.

"We are staying here…" Bianca replied in slight confusion.

"Yeah but I meant, keep staying here, for quite a while, you know, make this our new home for a bit…" She trailed off hopefully.

Bianca sat up and stretched, her long and now shining white blonde hair glinting in the sun and dripping water.

She looked around calculatingly in a lazy way.

"Well, its secluded, got a water supply, food nearby, enough room for us all, I don't see why not, as long as everyone's cool with it!" The snow leopard assessed, and Zenia beamed a genuine smile. She had thought now was a good moment to pose the question, and reaffirmed that as Bianca flopped back down to the stream contentedly, trailing a hand in the water to de-knot her hair.

"Well I like it, we haven't been attacked yet so that's good." Taco announced, stretching her arms above her and shielding her face from the blinding sun.

"What about you Ash?" Bianca asked. Ash blinked at the question, still not used to being included in group discussion.

"Well, since I escaped," The other three listened intently, they hadn't asked about Ash's past, if it was anything like theirs, which how could it not be seeing the way she looked, it wasn't a pleasant story.

"I haven't really stayed in any place for too long, not even a few days, so, it could be kind of weird, but as long as you think we're safe…"

"I think we are for the moment at least." Bianca speculated mildly.

"Yeah, there haven't been any erasers for days." Zenia added hopefully. Ash still looked a little unsure however.

"How about this, if we get even a whiff of danger, we high-tail it out of here so fast there won't even be a dust trail, but until then, we give it a go, will that work?" Ash nodded and smiled at Bianca's suggestion.

"Cool, in that case, we're gonna need to do some further scouting to see what's around us, we could be real near a farm or something, and it's best to be prepared for cows." Taco giggled at Bianca's cow comment, the two had once been surrounded in a field by the usually mellow creatures after escaping the lab. It had been what inspired their use of the word 'herd' to name themselves.

"Me and Neon can do it! He'll need to fly again soon anyway." Zenia eagerly suggested.

"Sure good plan, just don't crash like last time." Bianca laughed out, the last time Neon and Zenia had flown they had ended up crashing into someone's swimming pool and setting off the intruder alarm.

"I don't plan on it!" Zenia poked Bianca in the side playfully, causing the older to squeak slightly at the ticklish feeling.

_::Fallout::_

The next day an eager Zenia led an equally energetic Neon to the large hill before the stream.

"So do you reckon this'll do ok?" The puma questioned eagerly, glancing at the calculating flamingo.

Neon paced slightly, looking from down the hill to the ground and opened his wings slightly so the wind ruffled his feathers slightly.

"Yeah, should be ok," the iridescent streaks in Neon's hair glinted near indigo as he swung around to look at Zenia, "get ready to run!"

"I was born ready." She announced to his grin.

Neon walked down the hill slightly before turning and fanning out his wings so they caught the breeze, Zenia moved to the side out of the way so he could take off and watched in fascination.

The lurid pink wings flapped a couple of times before Neon moved, his long legs easily carried him up to the top of the hill in a short sprint whilst his wings flapped.

Reaching the top of the hill Neon pushed off from the ground, jumping into air as his wings also pushed down, carrying him high into the sky in a few beats.

Zenia wopped as Neon took off, high above her the wind caught him under his wings and he soared around in an arc to get back to where she stood.

Instinctively, from their many attempts at flying together, Zenia knew just when to start running and at what speed to reach the top of the hill in time.

Clearly in her head she could picture Neon swooping as she turned and began to run, moments later she heard wing beats behind her.

Reaching the highest point of the hill, a shadow fell over her as she pushed off with one foot and threw her arms into the air.

The slightest of touches rushed along her arms to her wrists before gripping tightly onto her.

Zenia laughed as she felt the familiar tug in her arms, and gravity trying to hold her back, but then the toes of her other foot hit the floor and sprung off, the wind caught Neon's wings and he tilted upwards with it, and gravity let her go, as if approving of their flight.

And the ground rolled away from her, and she couldn't help the excited laughter that escaped her as Neon's slight adjustments miraculously seemed to keep them both airborne, a feat which would have been impossible if not for some insane scientists.

Zenia looked up to see Neon's elated grin as he looked at the ground far beneath them, the wind throwing his long hair around haphazardly, the sun glinting off the iridescent streaks.

His usually erratic thoughts were suddenly relaxed and peaceful, as if everything faded away with the ground as they soared through the air.

Luckily the up draft of air from the hill had gained them enough height so that the strong winds caught them and lifted them higher.

A particularly strong gust blew them forwards faster and higher, they were now so far above the ground that the stream was a mere streak of blinding white through the green hills.

Zenia could barely control her laughter at the joy of feeling so weightless, so free. Another gust threw them higher still and Neon laughed with her.

The puma looked up to see that the flamingo had a particularly demonic look on his face, and her stomach dropped even further as butterflies flew into her throat with adrenalin.

"Hold on!" Neon yelled, and Zenia screamed as he tilted in the air, sending them into downward spirals.

The far away ground rushed up to meet them even from this height, the peak of a tall hill spiralling closer.

"N-Neon stoop!" She screamed with a hilarity that sprung from the knowledge that the flamingo would never let them fall, and the thrill that they could even dare this feat.

"Ah!" Just as it looked like they might hit, Neon expertly threw out his wings and beat them once to throw them sideways away from the huge hill, the ground still stretching away beneath them as the wind carried them safely away, Neon's wings positioned almost like a parachute to catch the most of the wind.

They were both laughing so hard that Zenia could feel the depleted oxygen levels of the air up here.

"I can't imagine why the others never want to try this!" Zenia yelled, feeling the wind rush around them.

"Well I wouldn't want to try with Jason, there's no way we'd stay up this high, and besides, him and Kuro are ground lovers." Zenia laughed, somehow, the fact that Jason would never be able to fly with just Neon was a nice thought, like she had this one thing about the flamingo entirely to herself.

Water far below them flashed in the bright light as the endless green rolled on.

"Well Ant, Taco and Bianca have flown, just not like this." Once again Zenia couldn't help the slight surge of happiness at the words, and felt a bit bad for it. Taco and Ant could be carried almost easily by the flamingo, and would probably get higher with him then she ever could, however the two didn't seem to have the thirst for flight that Zenia did. Bianca had tried once too, when they were first testing out their abilities, and had seemed to enjoy it, Zenia often thought she caught glimpses of Bianca's love of flight when she jumped particularly high or far. The puma had the sneaking suspicion that Bianca didn't fly with neon however, partly because Zenia herself loved it so much, and the snow leopard didn't want to take it away from her.

It was for that reason that she was grateful the snow leopard, and wouldn't mind so much if she flew occasionally, as long as Zenia still could do it the most. She knew it was selfish, but somehow, after all they'd all been through, she didn't think that it was so wrong to be sh. After all, they were all protective of something.

"What's that?" Neon's unusually focused and confused tone broke her peaceful chain of thought, and she glanced around.

"What's what? There's just grass and water."

"Over in-between those two big hills, there's something that flashes but not like water." Zenia squinted, and there was indeed a not quite water shine coming from between two hills.

"Can we get any closer?" She asked, and Neon nodded briefly before flapping and turning to soar closer to the building.

As they drew closer, Zenia's blood begun to run cold, and she realised that whatever it was, she didn't want to see it, judging by the indistinct buzzing coming from Neon's thoughts, neither did he.

As they circled around wide enough to see what became a building, Zenia knew why they didn't like it.

Glass and concrete, a five storied building rose between two mountain like hills, trees concealed it slightly in the valley, the polished grey slabs reflected the light so that it could be mistaken for a stream from afar, or an abandoned air field or military base up close.

The block like building turned out to be three buildings connected by smaller corridors, and beside each building was a large fenced tarmac covered pitch with floodlights. Surrounding them, there were twelve-meter high fences with barbed wire at the top, and electric wires running through the fence wires.

As they fell a bit lower with a drop in wind, enhanced animal senses of smell on the both of them picked up the stench of blood, chemicals, and the smell that haunted the herd above all, the smell that seemed to attach itself to every single white coat they had ever met.

They had stumbled across a Facility, another lab like the one they had escaped from six years ago.

And it was a good thing they were flying, because otherwise Zenia's feet would have given out beneath her.

As she hung in the air paralysed in horror, she had never been more grateful for Neon's animal instincts. Just a few seconds after they had seen the building, large powerful wings beat down around her and wheeled them up and away from the building.

In a swift and short arc they had turned and Neon was carrying them faster then he ever had before with powerful short flaps of his wings. The sunlight around them now seemed to glare menacingly down on the land, grinning sinisterly at it and attempting to burn it, laughing at them and mocking them for ever believing they could be safe from their past. Shadows that had previously been casting soft shadows now rolled in a sudden thunderstorm, casting the land beneath in a haunting half-light where things seemed to cower in trepidation.

The growing wind threw them back to the cave faster but buffeted them to and fro, causing Neon to have to work hard to correct their path of flight.

And even now Zenia wasn't afraid he'd drop her, or let them both fall, but some primeval fear gripped her that they might be smited from above, sending them tumbling to the ground below.

Because it the air they were safe, in the air there was no smell for the erasers to catch, nothing but a shadow for the white-coats to inject or electrocute or probe, there was no chance of her tripping and falling prey to them.

But on the ground, things were different, It was a whole new game, or old game, where the white-coats made the rules, and the herd struggled desperately to keep up and survive till it ended, especially when the game so often ended in pain. Hurt, blood, pain, and eventually, if you were just one step too slow, death.

::Hehe what a doom like ending eh? Hope you enjoyed and PLEASE review, thanks again to everyone who already did!

::Next chapter there shall be a new character that has been planned from the start, then after that I don't really know where it will go so if you have any ideas then please say them, you never know it might happen hehe, a couple of new character shall appear too, once again I can't promise when, but support of the story speeds up your characters entrance to an extent hehe, the more enthusiasm you show for your character and the story the more enthusiastic I get about them.

::I know in the last two chapters there's been a lot of Zenia, but she's very easy and fun to write, so the others will have more about them too soon I promise, and soon also there will be chapter/s on the original herd escaping from the lab and their time in it, so if you can/want to please give me some more information on their time there and stuff :). Basically the more information the better they'll be written, and they'll be written more too! So please lend me your thoughts and ideas!

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon, credit for other characters where it's due, and new character courtesy of shortval27!

:: That's right, a new one! I'm sooooo sorry about the horrible lateness of this chapter…but that would help if you ALL reviewed :( ! Anyway, I have second year uni exams at the moment, which I am most likely going to fail DX so don't be too hard on me for the delay please! But I am sorry anyway…so on with the show!

Maximum Fallout 9: Break In

"There's a _lab_ here, a freaking _lab_! I should've known that this place was too good to be true-" The herd sat in a state of varying disarray as Zenia ranted and paced.

Taco was curled in a corner, clutching her necklace and murmuring to herself, words filtered through the air to the rest of the herd's sensitive hearing, just as it had in the lab. Ant looked shell-shocked, and was clinging to Jason's arm, who was keeping his face stoic and unfazed, but fine tremors shook his clenched fists.

Kuro was deep in thought, fingering one of the strings from the hood of his jumper thoughtfully, a dark look on his face. Ash was backed against a wall, just managing to keep her breathing in check as she resisted the gut instinct to bolt.

Neon was standing dead still, his eyes flickering with uncertainty to each member of the herd, awaiting a decision to be made. Bianca watched Zenia pace, her tail swishing as she attempted to force her fear back into the box she kept it locked in, whilst unbidden memories flickered against the surface of her mind.

"-What if they already know we're here, what if they saw us flying? What if they've just been watching us this whole time to time how long it took us to find them like another one of their sick experiments-"

Zenia stopped mid-sentence as Bianca grabbed her shoulders, forcing the puma to look her in the eye.

"Calm down, we're gonna get out of here. Now. They won't even know we were here, if they did you can be sure we wouldn't still be free, we'd be back in cages, but we're not, so lets get it together and get out. Right?" She gave Zenia's shoulders a squeeze and a gentle shake, and the feline met her gaze with uncertain fear.

"You trust me right?" Zenia's eyes cleared and she nodded instantly. "Then let's get out of here, ok everyone?"

The herd scrambled into action as she looked around, getting to their feet and assembling some sort of normalcy.

"Wait."

The herd swung around in shock to Kuro's quiet word. The Lynx had a look of serious determination on his face, his ears standing alert.

"Maybe this time we should get one back on them." The assembled mutants took a moment to comprehend the statement.

"What do you mean? We can't possibly _go in there_!" Jason retorted fiercely, reaching out to pull Ant behind him, as if Kuro might grab him and do a runner.

"I know you're thinking capacity defies ours at times, but we _can't_ take risks like that, even if we might put a dent in their ego." Bianca's words were cautious, but laced with warning. Almost subconsciously the herd seemed to shift closer to her.

"What if there are _others_ in there? Are you going to be able to walk away knowing you may have left innocent children to our fate? I know you Bianca, you used to pray that someone would come and save us." Bianca bit her tongue at the memory.

"I wont risk us all for the sake of heroics." She stated. And she wouldn't, even though he decision might later eat away at her. This was her family, and they might not even have any experiments there.

"But if we _could_ get in, and out, _safely_, and rescue whatever poor souls are in there, or at least damage the place enough so that experiments can't be done…would you do it." The fierce look in Kuro's eyes made the herd blink in surprise.

"Do you have some kind of incredibly brilliant plan or are you just dreaming-"

"Would you do it?" Kuro interrupted doggedly.

Bianca's mind flashed with images of cages, needles, scientists, pain. She could never knowingly leave someone to that fate, but they didn't even know if someone was actually inside.

She stopped her circle of thought suddenly, what would she have thought, back in the lab, if someone had told her that potential saviours had turned away because they were too afraid for their own skins. And the thought of managing to put at least one lab out of commission was exhilarating.

"Just think, we could get all kinds of information in their, where other facilities are, how the erasers always manage to find us, stuff on our pasts, if we wanted we could take things about what they did to us o the press, no more hiding! I reckon they must share information between the labs, so we could bring them all down! And I'd only need about a minute to download it to my laptop and send the electrics in the building into a frenzy. I can short circuit the entire building, causing a fire, and then the lab, and all the erasers and white coats inside will be pretty much toast!"

The herd stared in shock at the sudden opportunity, maybe no more running, hiding, they could be free to live how they wanted.

Bianca could admit that they were probably all a little star-struck with the idea, but the potential benefits seemed to outweigh the risk…

"Neon, Zenia, Taco and Ant can't go, and Jason and Ash should probably stay with them, in case."

"_No_ way. If you're going so am I. I was there nearly as long as you Bianca, I want to see the bastards brought down." The fire in Jason's voice was final, and Bianca nodded deftly.

"_No_!" Taco cried. "You _can't_ go we _need_ you! You'll never come back and I can't loose you! I _wont_ let you _leave_ me! I'm coming too!"

"You can't come Taco, you know what would happen if you did." Bianca tried, but Taco's eyes were set with scared determination.

"If you're going, I'm going." Neon chimed in quietly, holding much the same look as Taco.

Seeing mutiny rise up around her, Bianca swiftly devised plan 'B'.

"Okay, okay, we'll _all_ go. But you are _not_ all coming in, if we all go it's a death trap, me, Jason and Kuro will go in, and you guys will stay outside in case we need you to escape, or to run away."

Bianca glanced at Ash, communicating to her desperately to keep the younger mutants out of the lab.

Stubborn expressions were appearing on their faces as they prepared to fight.

"_No_, listen, the more of us that go in, the more likely we are to get noticed." Taco and Ant seemed to subdue themselves at the truth behind the statement.

"I'm going with you." Zenia stated quickly. "I can get past any security cameras fast enough that they wont see me, and then disable them for the rest of you." Bianca sighed at the point she had, and Kuro nodded as if this fit seamlessly into his plan.

"I'll look after Ant and Taco." Ash stated, but after Taco's glare swiftly added "We'll make sure there's an escape route open for you." This seemed to meet with the chinchilla's approval.

"I can fly over and keep a look out, and that way if the escape route fails and you need to jump out a window, I can catch you." The flamingo stated the last half of his sentence only half jokingly, and Bianca sighed.

"Well sounds like we have half a plan here, guess we're going for it. Care to tell us the rest then Kuro?"

_::Fallout::_

"Right, so does everyone know where their meant to be?" The herd nodded around Bianca as they stared through the electric fence from their safety point of the undergrowth.

"Must be understaffed if this is the only defence they have." Jason commented dryly as he eyed the distinct lack of guards.

"Y-yeah, that's st-strange." Taco stammered. The younger hybrids were looking decidedly nervous. So were Ash and Neon, who were maintaining a faint mask of calm, mostly for the sake of the younger ones.

To be honest, Jason didn't feel much calmer. The nerves of the others were playing off him and it was nearly all he could do to push away their raw emotion, as well as his own.

It was six years since they escaped from the lab, he Bianca and Kuro had been there the longest, Bianca longest of all by the time he and Kuro had been 'obtained' and gone through the 'infant' area of the lab. He didn't relish the thought of going back.

Even if the memories he had of the place weren't raw anymore, and he was older now and better able to deal with them, he'd been there for more then half his life.

To walk back in there, willingly, no matter what the cause, would probably have him shaking soon enough.

The kangaroo glanced over at Kuro, who seemed more excited and determined then nervous, and Bianca, he'd known her long enough to recognise the tense, fixated look she wore. It was all concentration, like a hunt, like how she'd looked when they _were_ in the lab.

Gradually the air grew tense as they scanned the buildings for life.

"Well if we're gonna do this there's no use sitting around here… You ready to go?" Bianca questioned Kuro, who straightened.

"Yeah, get back guys." The herd fell back a few places and hit the floor, in case of any electricity reaching them. Kuro had short-circuited things before, but never on this scale.

The lynx placed his hands cautiously on the fence, and after recoiling from an initial jolt, bright light sparked from his hands.

The whole fence seemed to flash for a split second before the electric humming suddenly ceased.

"Nice work."

"Yeah you go Kuro!" Kuro sighed but light filled his eyes at the praise.

"I don't know how long it'll be before they think to check, so try and work as quick as you can."

"Right, everyone set? Then lets rock." Bianca stood, took a few steps back, and sprung into the air and over the fence with ease, followed swiftly by Jason, Kuro and Zenia.

Neon took off and begun circling the building for any sign of erasers or whitecoats.

Ash, Taco and Ant quickly begun tearing a hole in the electric fence, so that if the electricity came back online, they could still get out.

_::Fallout::_

Bianca was acutely aware of the thought of 'this is stupid' running through her mind as they skulked across one of the concrete yards towards the first lab.

She was almost suspiciously aware of the distinct _lack_ of bloodthirsty erasers and psychotic scientists trying to capture them the instant they cut the window pan out of its panel.

Glancing in to see a deserted storeroom, Zenia leapt through the window and disconnected the only, viewable, security camera in about six seconds flat.

"All clear." She hissed in a shaky voice. Even though it was a storeroom, the room was still contaminated with the smell of sterilization, a smell that barely covered the more heinous once underneath it.

Feeling that familiar itch to get out _now_ Bianca moved to the small door and opened it a fraction to keep a look out. The smell of chemicals and bleach and blood hit her like a wall, and it took a few seconds for her to shake herself out of that small, sterilized cage and into the present.

Kuro set to work connecting his faithful laptop to the power socket in the room, and hastening to hack into the building's blue prints.

The battered laptop had been salvaged by Kuro from someone's dustbin, and it hadn't taken the technopath long to coax the slightly dated machine into life. Since then, it had been the herd's guardian angel in plastic covering. They had learnt their way of life from internet sites that the government couldn't possibly know about, sites that kindly informed the reader how to pick locks, how to hack, common methods of spying, how to jump through windows without getting cut to death, amongst others.

The mutant's survival guide pretty much. The machine had also helped them learn how to read, write, given them music and movies, maps and information. It really had been a lifesaver for seven struggling mutants who hadn't been taught a thing about the world they were suddenly immersed in.

"Okay, I'm in." Zenia and Jason leant near to the screen, showing a basic building plan.

The sound of voices sprung up from down a corridor outside the room, causing Bianca to jump.

"Damn, guys heads up, we're about to have company, two minutes and counting." Zenia's face grew stricken and she leapt to her feet, Jason grabbed her sleeve deftly.

Kuro cursed under his breath and started typing furiously. Bianca kept her ear firmly on the direction of the voices, sniffing the air to ascertain the threat.

"Damn it!" Kuro exclaimed quietly, the others swung to look at him.

"The main computer system is easy enough to get to… But its in the opposite direction of," Kuro paused to read the screen, "Subject C-10-184's housing cage."

The assembled hybrids shared a glance. Implausible thoughts and plans raced through Bianca's mind.

"There's only one?" She questioned, they had to be sure.

"Yeah." Kuro affirmed.

"That would explain the lack of guards and erasers. But how?"

"You guys go get to the main computer system, get what information you can and then get out, ten minutes _tops_, after that _run_, got it?" The three mutants stared at her dumbly for a second.

"Ill distract these two and try to find them." Jason suddenly looked appalled.

"_Bianca_! This is no time for heroics!"

"The computer will be guarded, but they rarely guarded us, I remember, and we need the information more, I'm no great asset to get it. You'll need Zenia's speed for the cameras and she can get past most of the guards, Kuro has to be there, and you have to take out the guards, we can't leave another one of us here and we can't take anymore time then that, I'll leave after ten minutes too, mutant or not, now _get_ ready to run when I distract them."

"It's the fourth floor, two rights to the staircase and two lefts once you get up there, it's a room at the end of that corridor." Bianca nodded briefly, reciting the information over in her mind, she wouldn't forget, this she was good at, this she had been _trained_ to be good at.

With a glare Jason dragged the shocked and scared Zenia into some of the clutter, despite being tall for their ages, a sweeping human eye would never see the two. Kuro disconnected the laptop and camouflaged in just as easily.

Bianca brought the door towards her, imitating it being closed, and fell dead silent and perfectly still, every sense trained on the other side of the door.

Two voices, drawing closer, closer. Not hypnotising enough to be erasers, not fumbled enough to be cleaning staff, which meant they were scientists. They wouldn't go into the room, she'd have to wait until they were just close enough.

Unaware that four lethally trained and mutated weapons waited in bait behind the door, the steps came closer, talking about cortisone levels in the subject at the last test, definitely whitecoats.

'Three, two, one.' At the end of her countdown Bianca grabbed the top of the doorframe and swung backwards before kicking it viciously with the strength of legs that could survive a thirty-story drop.

The slam ricocheted down the long white halls as Bianca hit the wall opposite with her feet it from the force of her kick. The door had done most of her work for her.

She barely needed to push off from the wall and slam the whitecoats into the wall headfirst to knock them out.

Landing like a breath she couldn't hear any running or voices. 'Understaffed is the word' She noted silently.

"Ten minutes and counting, _go!_" With that she took the first right and sprinted down the corridor, hearing the whispers of the others footsteps as they sprinted off, Zenia's unmistakeably fast foot falls in the lead.

'One flight, two flights…' The blonde counted off in her head. He stairs caused her no issues, when you could jump fourteen meters, it wasn't really a problem. She scaled them in about a minute and a half before arriving on a landing and taking the first left.

The feline female had just reached the second corner when a shrill siren seemed to explode into the air.

"Ah!" Clasping her hands over her sensitive ears, Bianca stumbled and looked around desperately, eyes watering.

This was bad, now she wouldn't be able to detect if people were coming until they were much closer, and that would be all an eraser needed. She grit her teeth and stumbled on, keeping her hands firmly over her ears.

As she rounded the corner, it was like being transported back in time.

_::Fallout::_

Zenia raced down the long corridors. 'Left, right, double left.' She ticked off the corners as she neared their destination.

Occasionally she yanked a wire out the back of a camera, Kuro and Jason weren't far behind, as she reached the final bend she paused to wait for them.

If they got seen after this point it wouldn't change much, the computer would undoubtedly have a system in place to warn of hacking, even if they didn't encounter any guards or whitecoats. She shivered.

Zenia had phased memories of the lab, she mostly remembered the herd and her cage, that had been the centre of her universe, the tests and experiments mostly merged and became confused, glaring images and leering faces.

She had no qualms about letting the two boys go in their first, she didn't want to see any whitecoats again, not ever, not awake or alive anyway. Didn't want to see their merciless eyes.

Jason and Kuro reached her, and they paused briefly to re-affirm that they were all ready before jumping around the corner.

The door fell open with a single kick from Jason, who then propelled himself at the two scientists who were making noises of panic.

Zenia swiftly leapt at one of the two erasers, just as Jason finished with the scientists and tackled the other.

Kuro sprinted straight to the giant computer, completely trusting the others to keep him protected. He attached the trusty laptop and opened a file named 'Operations', the second he begun hacking the system, a piercing alarm rang through the building.

The erasers went down howling, Kuro flattened his ears and grabbed the pair of headphones he carried. He had to hack in quickly, and the headphones muffled the siren to an almost bearable level.

Jason and Zenia swiftly dispatched the two erasers before similarly clutching their ears and moving to the door to lookout. The two of them both had phenomenal hearing, but their ears weren't large or curled enough to reverberate the sound quite as badly as Kuro's large tufted ears.

Hacking came like a second nature to Kuro, ever since he'd learned the basics he'd been able to break into anything. The systems at this facility were good, but not as good as he was.

Kuro's mind nudged the sequences of letters and numbers forwards so that a perfect blend of machine efficiency and human ingenuity emerged. The file was broken into in seconds.

He didn't pause to look at it, as it downloaded he opened the 'Subjects and Experiments' folder and repeated the process faster.

"How long Kuro?" Jason yelled above the siren. It was some sort of unspoken rule that the herd had invented that decided that once you were discovered, you had half the time left that you originally had. That cut their ten minutes down to five, of which three were left to get the info and get out.

"One and a half to two." He yelled back before opening up the next folder, simply labelled 'Facility'. Whilst he hacked in, he glanced at the remaining files, swiftly deciding that, although they may have useful information, they couldn't spare the time.

_::Fallout::_

Bianca stared in slight horror at the rows of cages lining either side of the corridor, stacked on top of each other, they looked unclean and unused, and stank.

She could almost picture the pitiful creatures that must have lived and died in them. This lab may be near deserted now, but it hadn't always been, the size of the place alone was enough to confirm this. It was bigger then theirs had been.

The sound of footfalls caused her to break from her trance and spin around.

She was faced, not by erasers, but by standard _human_ guards with guns. What on _Earth_ _had_ happened here?

Bianca barely paused for the thought as guns were raised to point at her. She took off flying down the corridor, gunshots ricocheting off the walls with the guards' nervous firing.

Bianca slammed into the door and felt a bullet graze her just as she went through.

She stumbled into a lab surrounded with windows, barely registering the two terrified looking scientists as she leapt across the room and hurtled over a gurney like table, grabbing the top side and swinging it to the floor beside her as she crouched behind it for cover from the resumed gunfire.

Bianca's wild eyes flew around as the blatantly terrified guards fired fairly fruitlessly at will.

As her eyes came to rest on the bed part of the table she had tipped over, she froze.

_::Fallout::_

"Okay I've got it!" Kuro yelled, and begun disconnecting the laptop, Jason glanced at Zenia's tense but slightly relieved face. "Now get ready to run! This place is gonna go down!"

Jason knew what came next, Kuro would over-electrocute the computer, and thereby the building's electronics, in all likely hood starting a fire. Bianca would pick up the increased static, they all could, even the rest of the herd outside, and know that it was time to go. It was just like how they could all sense thunderstorms miles away.

Kuro took a deep breath and slammed his hands down on the keyboard.

At first there was just an increased humming, before static begun to raise their hair comically.

Kuro closed his eyes briefly, and when they opened the usually friendly blue eyes were a deadly electric blue and lit with a strange light. Sparks begun to crackle at his fingertips and in seconds, shocks ran through the computer and even along the walls.

There was a final surge of light from Kuro and the computer begun smoking and crackling, the static reaching an almost tangible level.

"_Run!_" Kuro yelled, and the three turned and ran from the stench of burning electrics, pelting down the corridor and around a corner just as a colossal 'boom' rocked through the building.

Fire alarms started whining frantically and fire seemed to scorch the corridor just behind them. Useless sprinklers did nothing to aid the situation and smoke billowed behind them.

But the fire couldn't find enough fuel in their corridor, even as a much louder explosion sounded from above them, no doubt in a lab.

But not even a fire could catch them, and any guards coming to investigate must have turned tail at the explosion.

The building was beginning to heat up and shake around them as Jason Kuro and Zenia shot out the storeroom window and sprinted across the grounds to safety.

_::Fallout::_

Bianca's ice blue eyes met gold streaked brown. Strapped to the table with cruel efficiency, was a female mutant, hanging slightly uncomfortably from the restraints.

She wore a white t-shirt and loose tracksuit trousers, evidently the standard get-up for this facility, and must have been around Bianca's age.

The two girls stared at each other dimly for a moment.

"Wh-who're?" The brown haired girl trailed off helplessly. Bianca shook herself as she suddenly became aware of her hair standing up slightly with static. The girl had wings that were also strapped to the table, and a nasty bandage across one of her arms and covering her temple.

"You up for an escape?" Bianca questioned with a grin.

"Huh? Wha-?" The snow leopard wasted no time in shredding the leather bindings, causing the girl to fall to the floor undignified.

"Can you stand?" Bianca questioned, looking earnestly at the shell-shocked girl.

The girl blinked just as an almighty shockwave ripped through the building, causing the guards and scientists to scream. A sharp siren joined the first one, accompanied by the acrid smell of smoke.

The girl jumped as sprinklers let loose water on the room, and seemed to snap out of the daze she was in.

Her eyes sharpened and cleared, focusing on Bianca.

"Yes."

"Then get ready to run." Another explosion, closer this time, shook the room, and as there was a crash and another yell from the others in the room, Bianca leapt into action.

She slightly lifted the light table and charged at the huddled guards and scientist, letting out a victory cry as the table slammed into their chests, crushing them against the wall slightly so that they dropped their guns.

"Come on!" Bianca cried as she turned back to the standing girl.

Another explosion sounded and the building rattled as she grabbed the winged girl's hand and dragged her at full speed towards a window.

"_What're _you-!" The girl begun exclaiming, too late.

Bianca jumped into the air, pulling the girl with her as she broke through the glass of the window and they begun falling.

Wing whipped viciously around them as they free-falled, the girl screamed out of shock, and begun trying to work her wing muscles.

"_Neon!_" Bianca screamed as they hurtled ground-wards. She had no hope of twisting to land whilst holding the girl's hand, who seemed to be in too much shock to move.

A sudden weightlessness grabbed her as she felt Neon's hand grasp tightly around her own, large pink wings beating down around her.

But it wasn't enough, they soon begun a barely controlled glide downwards, the bird girl turned in shock to Neon.

"_Flap!_" He cried at her desperately, and a determined look washed over her face.

Large, mottled brown wings beat down in time with Neon before opening like a parachute in mimicry of his.

They glided over the fence just as Zenia, Kuro and Jason sprinted under it. Ash, Taco and Ant looked up at them in surprise before swiftly turning and heading into the safety of the woods.

The flying trio swooped over them, and Bianca looked back at the burning Facility, a gleam in her eyes.

'Well if you _will_ create genetically mutated children then this is what'll happen...suckers!'

:: Du du duuuh! Yay go me, I don't know how good this chapter is, and I know some of the characters didn't make much of an appearance, but this is the last chapter that I have really planned…so anything could happen from here! But yeah, if you have any ideas, then please please let me know, cos I'm gonna need them! And It's cool to know what you guys wanna see. Now the new character is called Jessie/Jessica, and I had planned to put her in from the beginning, she was one of the first characters suggested, so please don't complain if she appeared before the other new characters I'm going to put in, okay?

:: That aside, please please review, I know that this story is getting less popular, pretty much by the chapter, but if you are still interested please just take a second of time to review, its not hard! And it makes my day to hear from you guys!

:: So once again, and info on the lab (for any character really, old herd, new herd members and ones to be) or info at all, who they get on with, if I'm writing them ok, stuff like that…whatever you've got I'll take it!

:: Finally (before I bore you all to death :P) I've done drawings of the characters that are in/will be in the story, cos it helps me get a feel for them and picture them better. Now I'm no stunning artist or anything, and its all kinda anime style, and the drawings probably won't look like how you picture you're characters I guess, but I was wondering if anyone would be interested in seeing them/showing off some of their own drawings, cos If you guys are, then I might start like a blog kinda thing on this story, and then I could put up posts on what new characters there are gonna be, when I'm gonna be able to put up new chapters, ideas etcetera. I don't know if anybody would be even interested! But I thought I'd check and see. Incidentally if you are interested, and know any good sites to do a blog thing, then please let me know! I just thought it could be kinda fun!

:: Thanks for reading, shadowtheo. Please review! :D


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon, credit for other characters where it's due!

Warning! A little bit dark/maybe gorey, but nothing too bad really. Thanks for all the reviews! Your all stars! :D On with the show!

Maximum Fallout 10:

The atmosphere back at the cave was a jumbled confusion of emotions.

Adrenalin, excitement, tension and panic battled with each other in the after shock of the lab break in.

Ant thought that mostly they were shocked that they had actually managed it.

The new girl stood warily at the entrance of the cave, pre-storm light illuminated their faces darkly. Nobody seemed sure what to do next.

Ant was glad that he hadn't gone into the lab, he barely remembered it, he was only two when they escaped, barely out of the infant section, but what he could remember was pain. Pain and scared faces around him, the herd trying to look out for each other, even behind bars.

Smells brought back memories for him more then the actual site of the lab, even from outside the stench made him nauseous, he didn't know how the others could have managed going in.

But then he did have a better sense of smell then them, except maybe Ash, who was a wolf too, she almost smelt like family to him, even though she smelt of hawk as well.

This new girl smelt of fear and confusion, she didn't seem to be able to comprehend the new freedom she had, and stood dead still, as if this new world would disappear if she moved.

Ant felt sorry for her, she looked so scared, she didn't have Ash's confidence in her own abilities, or the herd's intimate bond and unwavering faith in each other. She was all alone.

"Hello I'm Ant. What's your name?" The wolf kid asked with a pleasant grin as he moved forward to welcome the girl. But to his surprise she recoiled from him.

"Get away dog!" She yelped, scrambling further towards the mouth of the cave, a sort of terror gripping her.

Ant tried moving forward again, but the girl edged back, the rejection hit Ant hard, none of the others minded he was part wolf, why couldn't they be friends?

"Why is there an _eraser_ with you!" Cried to girl, her red-brown hair flying around as she shook her head, clutching the bandage on her arm.

Ant blanched, an _eraser_? _Him_? That couldn't be true surely! The rest of the herd was moving to his defence, but it was Ash who stepped between him and the girl first.

"Ant is _not_ an eraser. And if you had more then a sliver of decency you wouldn't judge him so easily, so _back off_ bird girl!" Ant and the rest of the herd stared on in shock at Ash.

Her tail was fluffed up and upright rather then relaxed, her wings spread slightly, shielding Ant from the girl's view. There was a warning growl in her low voice.

Ant was shocked but happy at the fact that Ash was protecting him, even if she was being a little bit severe with the even more shocked newcomer.

"Woah woah! Lets back off guys!" Bianca placated the two winged females, stepping in-between them.

"Ant is _not_ an eraser, he's just a human mutated with arctic wolf DNA, just like the rest of us, he doesn't morph or attack people and he doesn't even look like them. Have you ever seen an eraser with ears and a tail in its human form? Or a white one at that? The same's true for Ash."

The girl was looking slightly abashed but still wary as she glanced over Ant and the faintly growling Ash, who wasn't letting down her defence, and still staring intently at the new girl.

"We're all family, and none of us will hurt you, but don't even dare hurt us."

The girl's gaze shifted to Bianca in a downcast manner.

"Okay, I'm sorry, I guess I don't really know anything about you, and I shouldn't judge. But, just… I'm just not very comfortably around _any_ type of dog. I don't want to be rude…but."

"We'll give you space, don't worry." Ash said, relaxing as the girl calmed down.

"Thanks." She mumbled softly, a blush creeping over her face.

"So what _is_ your name? I'm Bianca, and this is Jason, Kuro, Zenia, Taco and Neon."

"I'm Jessie…why did you save me? Who _are_ you? You weren't at my lab that's for certain, so where are you from, how on Earth did you escape?"

"Didn't know we were playing twenty questions." Kuro commented with a grin, causing the girl to blush again.

"Well, I'd like _some _answers, this is all a bit sudden you know."

"What surprises me is how well you're taking this, we were a wreck after we left the lab, we certainly wouldn't be this calm."

Ash was a bit taken aback at his words, only just remembering how she'd felt after she escaped. She sent an apologetic glance at the girl, she'd forgotten what an onslaught all of this must be, no wonder she'd lashed out. But she'd still been out of line.

"Well I've only been there for six years since I was ten, guess I was lucky, some of the old experiments were going on twenty I hear."

The same had been true for some of the herd, Kuro had arrived at two, but until he was five was kept in a special area of the lab. Jason was taken from his family when he was five, as was Taco, Zenia was given by her whitecoat parents when she was four.

"Well, we saved you because Kuro's an idiot and Bianca's got a hero-complex." Taco stated matter-of-factly.

"Hey it worked didn't it!" Kuro defended.

"I do not!" Bianca protested.

"Really we just thought that we could get some incriminating information on the Facility, and we couldn't leave someone there without kicking ourselves for it later." Jason reasoned, and Jessie nodded in understanding.

"And you managed to blow up the whole lab, that's pretty impressive."

Kuro beamed in a satisfied way, until Jason whacked him on the head lightly for looking smug.

"What happened to that place? Evidently it used to be more populated." Bianca questioned.

"By the time I got there it had just happened, that's why they came after me, before then I was still with my dad, probably because they had so many experiments they weren't too concerned with me. My parents managed to get me away from the hospital I was born at."

Jessie couldn't help herself from giving all the information she felt like sharing with them, after so long spent with her guard up, she couldn't do it any longer. And these people were like her, around her age or even younger, what hope did she have on her own? Raw emotions evoked from the stress of the escape played with her memories, that seemed impossibly closer then they had for years.

"The doctors put my mother in a secluded room after I was born and went to discuss what on earth I was. My dad thought that I might be taken away from them and took me from the special secluded baby crib, got my mother and we ran."

Tears appeared in her eyes and chocked her voice. The strange collections of mutants around her either appeared uncomfortable or empathic with her tale.

"Because my mother didn't recover properly from the birth, she was always i-ill, and wh-when I was s-seven she couldn't recover from the flu…since then, it was just me and my dad. They found me one day when I was leaving school and took me away, I never saw him again, he might even be dead or-"

Tears escaped from her eyes, she had often chased this chain of thought, now that she was free where would she even go? If she went back to where she used to live, and found out that her dad had died, she wouldn't be able to go on.

Sobs wracked her thin frame and her legs began to shake with the adrenalin comedown and the sudden emotions she couldn't contain. Falling to her knees, she felt arms wrap around her.

The unusual scent and sensation of anything but a whitecoat or eraser touch made her blink, but relax into the embrace.

"Its ok, just let it out, we'll help you find out what happened, and you can always stay with us if you're wiling to pull your own weight, we wouldn't rescue you then leave you all alone." Bianca's soothing tone washed over the winged girl, talking to her like she did for the younger herd members when they were upset.

The herd relaxed as well as Bianca held the crying girl, somehow they had become conditioned to be calmed by the tone the oldest girl used, and knowing the girl's background, no longer felt a threat from her.

Even Ash relaxed completely, gazing over at the girl who was clutching onto Bianca like a lifeline. The snow leopard's tail swished hypnotically across the floor as she muttered words of comfort, a serene expression on her face.

Ash felt a sudden stab of misery and longing, images of sharing similar embraces with her twin flashing before her eyes. The hollow feeling rocked her, and she sat in a stupor, until she felt Ant's hand rest on hers.

She jumped and gazed into the deep indigo eyes, lit with a warm purple light.

"Thanks for standing up for me. You're like a big-sister!" Ant's smile lit up his changing eyes further, making them the colour of light amethyst. More sadness flooded her at the thought of her own brother, but also an almost overwhelming sense of belonging.

She snatched Ant into her arms and hugged him tightly, he giggled softly and returned the hug, happy to see Ash becoming more comfortable around them.

"Gawd what's with all the sudden sap?" Taco queried to the remaining, non-hugging mutants. "It's making me want to cry!" The little chinchilla did indeed feel relief and joy that they had all escaped another lab, and saved someone else from one.

"Common Zenia! Give me a hug!" She exclaimed, being suddenly filled with happiness to see them all around her. Zenia looked slightly taken aback by the idea.

"Why can't Jason hug you?!"

"Because he's a boy and they don't do hugs, come on we used to hug all the time!"

"That's because we used to be eight and seven!" Zenia backed up slightly, but was unable to get away in time.

"Ack! Taco not so tight!" The puma complained good-naturedly as Taco pounced on her with a bone-crushing hug, but hugged back anyway. Soon the hyper Taco got bored of the hug alone however, and begun tickling Zenia, who responded in equal vigour.

Soon the two were rolling around and squeaking with laughter at one of their old favourite hobbies.

Kuro burst out laughing.

"I'd forgotten they used to do this! Hilarious." He commented as the two girls chased each other.

"Aw now I'm all lonely…" Neon commented morosely, and glanced sideways at Jason, who remained largely unaffected by the hug-athon.

"Oof!" Jason exclaimed as Neon glomped him with a gleeful laugh, childlike in his joy of the attention. Jason good-naturedly ruffled the messy hair as he smiled down at the simplistic mutant, feeling the happiness radiating off him, it was nearly impossible to not be drawn into it.

Kuro merely looked around and scoffed slightly as Bianca detached herself from the now sleeping Jessie.

"Looks like you've started a trend, an unfortunate one considering our odd numbers."

"Aw are you jealous?" I'll give you a hug if you feel left out."

"Yeah right, you only hug sad people."

"Oh really?" Kuro spied the smirk before Bianca threw herself at him, knocking them to the floor as she clung around his neck. "I'll hug whoever I want!"

"Wow, I've been taught such a valuable lesson!" Kuro remarked sarcastically, but without maliciousness.

"Oh shut up you grouch." Bianca commented with a grin, then squealed and leapt away as Kuro licked her cheek in a cat like manner with a mischievous grin.

_::Fallout::_

A decision had been reached to get as good a nights sleep as they could, who knew when they'd be able to have one again, and the burning lab would surely be discovered soon, but they had no idea which way they were going to travel, there probably wouldn't be anymore caves for awhile.

Besides, they didn't quite have the heart to wake the sleeping Jessie, who was probably getting the first good nights sleep she'd had for six years.

Once the girl was sleeping the herd had huddled together, discussing what they were going to do.

They'd pretty much all agreed that they wanted to try and help Jessie find her home.

"Its not like we've got anywhere else to go." Zenia commented. "We might as well do something."

"Yeah, it'll be a nice change to know where we're going. Anyway, I haven't had a plan for ages, being impulsive gets tiring." Ash added, and the rest of the herd nodded in agreement.

"It _would_ be nice to see a happy ending for once as well, rather then just fight, run, fight, run…it'd be good to see at least _one_ mutant get lucky." Kuro continued, they'd all seen a bit too much fighting recently. It used to be that the herd could live for months without being discovered, but now they seemed to get detected within weeks at the longest, for the past few days things had been getting ridiculous.

"And I'd like to see a _real_ family again…what people who accept mutants are like…" Bianca wrapped an arm loosely over Taco, this was about the closest the girl had come to talking about parents since they had found out about her past in the lab. It was a fairly sensitive subject for most of them.

"_Yeah!_ Maybe he'd even want to adopt!" Ant chimed in eagerly. Bianca, Jason and Kuro shared a warning look.

"Now lets not jump the gun guys, for all we know he's moved…or otherwise gone, or maybe even changed his mind about mutants, and even if he hasn't it might only be his daughter that he's okay with." Bianca attempted to curb the hope that was kindling in the younger mutants.

"Kill joy." Muttered Taco sullenly, but Bianca could tell that the two were still enamoured by the idea. The snow leopard sighed, hating that she had to crush some of the first hope that these kids had ever had since escaping the lab.

"I'm just saying don't get your hopes up, we might not even find him remember?" Bianca could see that her words weren't getting through, and glanced at Jason for help.

The older male just shrugged and looked away with a slight redness lighting his face.

'Great, there goes my voice of reason…' She thought mutinously.

"Well I don't trust parents, I just want to drop her off and run." Zenia put in, a scowl covering her face. She had developed a severe distrust of adults after her parents had put her in the lab and proceeded to occasionally oversee and construct experiments for her, providing the other scientists intimate details about her childhood in a normal setting that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to gather. Her whole childhood had been one giant experiment.

"I've already got a family." Neon added, the herd didn't even know if he could remember his parents specifically. One of the whitecoats had offered her unborn child for the DNA experiment, but become too attached to the idea of keeping him before the birth. Neon had been taken whilst she recovered from the C-section. The white coats had often mentioned it around him, apparently one of their 'mental stress' tests. One of them had been his father too, but none of them knew if he knew which one. They had all been bastards anyway.

Bianca smiled at the two close mutants, leaning her head on top of Zenia's and purring slightly to sooth her discomfort, Neon swiftly joined in the affection with a purring imitation of his own.

"If, if it all goes alright with Jessie's father, then, maybe…" Jason trailed off awkwardly. "Maybe we could look for my parents too…" He mumbled embarrassedly.

To his knowledge they were still alive, but Jason had flat out refused to look for them when they first escaped the lab, afraid of leading trouble to them in eraser form. He had been scared of getting them hurt after Taco had told them about seeing her own parents torn apart by the erasers when they came to steal her. They had all been sickened to hear that, and silently made vows to not let that happen again. To Jason, that had meant keeping himself completely out of contact with his family, who probably thought he was dead.

Bianca felt a small stab of something she could not name. Was it sadness? Desperation to not loose her only family? Jealousy? She didn't know. She had been at the lab since she could remember, and wasn't even able to remember any touch but a whitecoat's. Never had any parents been mentioned. Partly she was upset about this, and had often dreamed of some unknown person coming to take her away, but partly she was glad that she didn't know. Didn't know whether her parents had been killed, if she'd been loved and then stolen, leaving them to think her dead, that she'd been a planned pregnancy of some whitecoats to experiment with, if she'd been a test tube baby. It was harsh not knowing, but also made her closer to the herd, who were, in her mind, her real and only family.

She looked across at Jason, who was fiddling uneasily with his jacket.

"If you want to look for them, then we'll help you no matter what." She said with a smile, even though a gut instinct yelled at her to keep her herd together no matter what. But if this was Jason's choice, if this would make him happy, then who was she to say no.

"Maybe _Jason's_ parents will adopt me!" Taco exclaimed brightly.

"Maybe they'll adopt _all_ of us! Then we could all still be together!" Ant joined in gleefully.

"Well, we'll have to wait and see about that." Smiled Jason, and the younger two grinned with hope.

Bianca saw no use in trying to puncture their balloons of joy, she was positive that things could _never_ work out like that, but nothing she could say would do anything but upset them.

"Well let's get some sleep for now, and try to find Jessie's father tomorrow, okay guys?" Ant and taco nodded eagerly and curled up together talking about how great it would be if they could all live together with Jason's parents.

Even Jason went to sleep with a smile, whilst Neon and Zenia curled up together, not saying a word.

"Hey, it might work out okay you know." Kuro said softly as Bianca looked over the others with worried eyes.

"There's no way any one family would want to take on eight mutant kids, plus their own, and that's even if we can even _find_ anyone's family! They're going to be crushed, Kuro! I don't want that to happen, I'd rather keep running and never know then get disappointed."

"So you're telling me that if we opened up those files I downloaded, and found an address for your parents, that you wouldn't at least check it out? No one's that balanced Bianca. I know if I found out the address of _my_ parents I'd go running even if it did turn out terrible."

With that the lynx turned and walked away to find a sleeping spot.

Bianca sighed in frustration. The talk of families was always a tense one, and she honestly didn't know _what_ she would do if they found an address. Just that she didn't want them to all be broken all over again, and she didn't want to be alone.

Ash cast her a sympathetic glance and came to sit next to her.

"They're only children, they wont be able to understand the disappointment until it happens, they just can't see the potential disaster, only the potential happiness."

"So what am I supposed to do? Let them go in there to have their dreams shattered? Let them walk into a potential disaster? What would you do?"

"I'd just wait and see, after all, first of all we've got to see if we can find this girls family, and if that goes badly, then they probably wont want to look anymore anyway."

"But if it goes well then they'll be no stopping them… I'm not even sure I'd be strong enough to risk all my hopes even if there were an address on those files, at this stage I may not even have any parents anyway. I was at the lab since before I could remember, I might just be some test tube baby, some random combination of DNA that isn't really from anything, a nothing child… What about you? Do you know?" It was probably the lack of intensity and the rareness of sharing such an intimate conversation that made Ash answer the question. With her family playing on her mind already, she almost felt talking might ease the pain slightly.

"Well, whoever my parents are, I'm not sure I'd want to meet them." At Bianca's questioning look she continued. "Well from the evidence I'd say that they were either whitecoats themselves, or some sort of mutant baby production machines. They must have given both me and my twin sister, and my little brother to the Facility one way or another. And I don't think I know what I'd do to them even if I did find them… But after, everything, I doubt I could ever forgive them."

The darkness in Ash's tone was a clear signal of raw emotions, and Bianca knew not to ask any more questions, sharing time was over for tonight it seemed.

Both girls sighed simultaneously, and gradually drifted into fitful sleeps.

_::Fallout::_

Ash fell through tumbled dreams.

Blood spattered her face and screams filled her head, she clawed the electric fence desperately, shocks that would have her reeling in agony if not for the experiments to dull her pain receptors coursed through her body.

She couldn't tell who was screaming anymore, their voices were identical.

Ash couldn't break through the fence, even if she could there was still the heavy metal cuff that chained her on a cruelly short leash to the metal hoop on the floor. She couldn't get out of that without breaking something, even though she would barely feel the break compared to other people, the tests had shown that, shown that they had nearly perfected the method, the new race of erasers.

But not yet, the dulled pain receptors gave her one fatal flaw, she couldn't tell when she was hot or cold. Her body couldn't tell her mind when it was failing do maintain her core temperature until it was too late, and she was lying on the floor unable to move. Sweating blood or bleeding internally as ice shards punctured her internal organs.

Even if she _could_ break the cuff, she couldn't get over the fence, because she wasn't the final model, because the wings that had sprouted from her at birth were still weak fledgling wings, taking much longer to strengthen then they would in the wild because of all the nerve experiments, even with the growth enhancing drugs, they still wouldn't grow big enough to let her fly.

If she jumped high enough then manic flapping could keep her aloft for only a few seconds before the weak wing muscles tired out and she fell onto the usually electrocuted floor.

There was no way she could reach her twin, her screaming twin. Ash watched in horror as her duplicate was thrown around the training area, her skin tearing, blood spattering Ash even from this distance. Blood that smelled nearly identical to her own, nearly.

Except that it wasn't. Because whilst Ash was one prototype, she was another. Whilst Ash was flight and strength and lack of pain, she was stealth and intelligence and smelling people out from miles and miles away through their shadows, as long as they stayed still long enough.

She wasn't perfected either, she would fall into darkness in her mind, get trapped in the blackness of her mind for days. Being able to locate people through their shadows stretched her senses so far that she couldn't tell what was in front of her sometimes.

The main imperfection was something else however, the one power that both of the twins should be able to achieve, but couldn't, and wouldn't.

They couldn't morph like the rest of the erasers.

This was the final straw tonight, they were going to get her twin to morph, even if it meant severely damaging her, but she wouldn't, she just wouldn't.

Ash screamed her name as her body smashed against the fence like a rag doll, her broken face swung to look at her, eyes fever bright but duller then they had ever been. A broken fingered hand reached out to her desperately, Ash could only just reach the claw like nails, scratching deeply at her own hand before she was dragged away again.

Ash was sure she was no longer screaming, she was crying, she couldn't scream through the tears as the erasers fell on her twin savagely. But she was screaming, and no longer did they sound the same.

Finally the scientists had achieved their goal, Ash could barely recognise the agonisingly thin, torn and morphed body as her sister. The savage creature bit down on the throat of an eraser and slashed at it desperately, before the other erasers fell backed away.

But she was too broken, Ash could see from meters away how her limbs hung at distorted angles, dropping the dead eraser she raised her head, and unleashes a tortured howl.

Behind her, requiring no restraint, her little brother looked on in horror, but didn't move a muscle.

He was the final prototype. He could morph, and his wings were more developed then hers were at his age, he grew faster, learned quicker, he could run through shadows and sniff people out, sneak through traps that would have caught anyone but Ash's twin, could feel enough pain to know when to stop, he could follow orders without question, he was everything they weren't, and the whitecoats knew it.

Blood tripped from the gunshot of the whitecoat, she hadn't morphed soon enough, she would never heal from those wounds. She knew it, and so did Ash.

The agonised howl reached skyward as her body begun to unmorph. Ash screamed again.

But the scream wasn't human, it was a high-pitched shrieking cry of grief. Ash tor her head away from the sight of her dead twin, the whitecoats were staring at her and pointing, screaming with excitement, barking orders at approaching erasers.

But finally, Ash could escape them, her would looked sharper then before, she could hear the erasers heartbeats, her wings were no longer small and weedy, but huge and powerful, magnificently feathered and broad like the hawk she was combined with.

The cuff fell off her talon and she leapt into the sky, pushing down with her powerful wings and rising upwards just as erasers tried snatching at her.

With another cry she soared over the fences and blood.

Her little brother looked up, accusation in his eyes, as he glared up at her.

"I'll find you! I'll get you! _You could have saved her!_"

ash tried to fly away from the memory, but saw her shadow on the ground, it seemed to distort into a morphed face, eyes that burned with hatred, and malicious satisfaction leered up at her.

"_I've found you…"_

"Ah!" Ash bolted upright as she escaped the dream. Her heart pounded, she hadn't relived that night for a good few months, but it always had the same effect on her.

She stared around, looking for morphing shadows and burning eyes, trembling so hard that she couldn't move.

"Just a nightmare, just a dream." She muttered quietly into the darkness. The others would have heard that too, would detect an intruder, it had to be a dream.

But he wouldn't come alone anyway, they'd send more erasers, and he was the only one that could phase through shadows, it was just a dream.

Just as she let out a breath of relief, a sound other then the near silent breathing of the other mutants filled the cave, emanating from her faint shadow on the cave wall.

"_I've found you Ashley…I'm coming to get you…_"

"_WAKE UP!"_ Ash screeched, the eight mutants jumped violently and woke in a panic.

"Ash what-?" Bianca begun to question.

"We've _got_ to get out of here_ now_! Erasers are coming!" Bianca blinked at her for a second, taking in her panic and serious tone.

"Okay quick, everyone! Grab the stuff and lets get out!"

"How can we even trust her! How the hell does she know they're coming?" Taco cried in half accusation, half panic as the herd grabbed their scant possessions.

"I promise I'll tell you everything but can we please leave now!" Ash pleaded with the herd in general, Jessie, and Taco looked highly suspicious.

"Lets go, I'd rather not stick around to find out if she's right or not. Get out _now_ guys."

The herd followed Bianca's lead and fled the cave into pouring rain.

"Which way to your house Jessie?" Bianca yelled over the pouring rain.

"West I think!" The herd accepted this, Jessie evidently had what they called the 'bird sense' Neon had always somehow been able to tell which direction they had come from, or which way they were facing, like he had a built in radar.

The herd set off at a sprint along the side of the darkened road, but far enough away from it that they wouldn't be seen behind the rocks.

Ash breathed a sigh of relief. The trust that, at least most of, the herd showed in her was something she had never come across before, it alleviated some of her panic to no end that the had heeded her warning.

But a shiver still ran down her spine at that voice.

As they ran, Ash morphed into a wolf, changing her scent, he wouldn't be able to find her for a while now. He may be the final prototype, but just like he could feel more pain then she could, he would never be as good at tracking as her twin, and he could probably barely remember her smell she'd been away so long. If it weren't for damaging the lab, then he'd probably never have thought to look for her there. For now at least, they were as safe as ever.

Taco cast her a wary glance as she ran along, but luckily Jessie didn't notice, too caught up in the joy of running for something other then a test. The rest of the herd didn't react, except Ant who whooped as she ran alongside him.

Next stop, anywhere west.

::whoop! That was quicker then usual huh! Firstly, sorry for the slight gore/darkness of this chapter, but hey, they were being tormented by mad scientists in a lab, it couldn't be all sunshine and roses right?

::Now, I've also hit some issues this chapter (oops!) I kinda forgot about the ages that some people said their characters got taken to the lab, and in my mind I've already planned their escape…so I kinda changed a bit of some of their backgrounds…but none of those people seem to read this story anyway, so whatever, its not like they have the right to care if they don't review in my opinion, so there, ha!

::Ahem anyway, thank you sooooo much to those of you who reviewed, you guys are really amazing and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Also..as the creator of Tam has not reviewed in like…a few chapters, her character is unfortunately (cos I quite like them) slipping down the list of which new character to introduce first at the moment…call me fickle…but I'm fed up of using disinterested peoples characters, fair enough I'll keep using the ones already in this, I've grown to like them, but yeah…

::So therefore, Shayne and Chrissy will probably be used sooner! Yay! But maybe not for a chapter or two…I'm not sure how it will all work out, but it might be quite soon I think! Speaking of which, would you two guys (Shayne Rider and Jenfan456) mind if maybe you're two characters had already run into each other/met up already, this may not be an issue, but its just one of my ideas at the moment…its entirely up to you guys, either way be assured they will be used :D

::Okay, ideas wise, I was wondering what you guys would think about the herd ending up in a school for a bit (not like a lab school, but a normal school) I know that that's happened in the books and all…I've just got some ideas that I think could be kinda fun, and as I don't really know where the story is going anymore, but know that I want to do more funny situations like the fast food restaurant incident, I thought it could be cool, and I loved that bit in the book, and wont copy it I swear. But for any of you that want your character to run into a love interest then this could be the perfect opportunity! Hint hint!

::Finally (sorry for how long these notes get by the way, hopefully this will put an end to the need of long notes!) I have re-vamped my unused livejournal account for info/discussion/pictures on this story!

Okay this like really doesn't want to work online, so if you don't get it, just let me know and I'll e-mail it to you or something ok?

H t t p : / / s h a d o w t h e o .

L I v e j o u r n a l .

C o m /

If you can see it then just take out the spaces and capitols and it should work!

Feel free to copy any pictures that I put up, but if you use them as a wallpaper on a site or put it up anywhere else or in a video or anything, please give me credit! I don't get paid, so I want recognition hehe! Hope you all enjoy, I shall put some more pics up, but I don't wanna do them all at once cos soon there wont be any left, so please be patient if your character isn't up immediately, I'll try to get them all done soon!

::If you can't get onto the link or leave any comments, then try getting an account (I don't know how the site works with people who aren't on it) its free and easy to do! Please do comment on pictures or give constructive criticism (I need it!) or on any ideas that I put up or ask any questions you want to, that's what its there for after all! But please don't forget to review the actual story, or I'll get all upset!

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon, credit for other characters where it's due!

I'm so unbelievably sorry for taking so long! I have reasons…most of them aren't interesting or fun, but mainly I've started work at a wildlife rescue centre, and have had hedgehogs on the brain ! I'm gonna keep trying though! I have some fun things planned!

Maximum Fallout: 11 Family Proposals

By the time the herd had been running for a good few hours, they were soaked. It wasn't really a problem, they were kept warm by the running, and they'd been through worse. However, fatigue was beginning to set in.

Their speed had slowed down as they tired. Taco and Zenia were struggling especially. Taco had been 'designed' for agility and aerobatics, and Zenia for fast running, but over long distances they were fairly badly adapted, for mutants anyway.

Ant, although younger, faired better. After all, wolves loped for miles, so he and Ash had little trouble with the distance. Neon and Jessie would have managed better in the air, but with the sky still cloaked with darkness and the strong wind and rain, it was far too easy to get separated.

They didn't dare stop for fear of the erasers catching up to them, although they did slow to a walk to save their legs.

"How much further? I think my feet are about to fall off." Taco complained loudly, a whining tone to her voice.

"I think we must be further away then I thought, it should have got warmer by now."

"_Warmer_! How far away _do _you live exactly?" Zenia moaned in horror.

"Well it's not far from the sea so, quite a way away." The herd failed to disguise their looks of horror at the thought of such a long journey. Sure they'd gone way longer then this before, but that was without knowing.

"We should never have crashed that bus." Groaned Neon as he attempted to flick his soaping fringe from his eyes.

"How did you manage to live somewhere hot? You've got _wings_! Surely someone would have seen some feathers?" Jessie smiled slightly at Kuro's question.

"Well I just made sure never to go to the beach or swim in public, I don't really like water anyway."

"I like water." Neon commented absently.

"I wanna see the sea!" Ant's excited tone sent dread through Bianca; she knew what would come next…

"Aw yeah me too! We could have a beach day!" Sure enough, Taco had leapt on board, hopefully they would never, ever, see the sea. Or there'd be no stopping them. They'd be exposed in a minute with their tails and ears and other oddities.

"So we're going somewhere actually warm! Thank god!" Jason exclaimed, he disliked the cold.

"Just _how_ hot are we talking, I'm not built for heat!" Bianca complained, her long, hick furred tail was built for a cold climate, and although in summer she moulted slightly, it wasn't enough to make a difference when it got properly hot.

"Hmm quite hot I'm afraid, at least at this time of year."

"Great, I'm gonna melt, or shrivel into a prune."

"Maybe you'll get a tan, I'd like a tan." In Bianca's mind, Taco was far too happy about their impending doom.

"Sigh, guess we'll find out the hard way."

_::Fallout::_

Surely enough, the temperature had risen an alarming number of degrees by morning, the landscape had changed from rolling green hills to scrubby rocky and sandy slopes, pine trees had turned to palm.

Even though the heat was driving her insane in her thick winter coat and clothes, Bianca was still amazed by just how far the herd could travel these days when pushed.

"I can smell the sea!" Ant cried out jubilantly, his head was thrown back as he sniffed in apparent rejoice. Ash's wolf form was posed in a similar manner, but looked slightly more wary. Taco giggled and snorted slightly.

"You don't even know what it smells like! You've never even been to the sea!"

"I do too know! It smells like salt, and fish." Taco looked suitably impressed, Jason however, rolled his eyes impatiently.

"Come on can we hurry! I can't wait to get sunbathing!" Bianca shuddered again, the very thought made her feel hotter.

"Isn't anyone except me even _vaguely_ worried that we'll either have to be discovered as weird mutated experiments or swelter in _way_ more layers then is necessary for this level of heat?" By the complete feeling of being pointedly ignored as talk raged on about sunbathing, yes, she was the only one thinking that.

"I'm not too crazy about it either…" Kuro muttered conspiratorially.

"And I wouldn't mind being a little cooler…" Ash added uncertainly. Bianca smiled in a hopeless sort of appreciation, however, the remaining herd members appeared oblivious to any of their inconveniences.

Dawn was just creeping up over the dunes as the herd approached the town, thankfully warily.

They watched from the ridge of a rocky slope that sat a little way above one of the main roads leading into the town.

"Okay, I know you're all excited, but I catch so much as a tail hair from one of you go into the ocean there'll be issues. We find Jessie's father, we see if this is a safe place, then well decide what to do next, got it?"

There were nods of agreement all around from the herd, even the youngest members could be serious at times.

Eventually a large truck carrying hay came trundling along the road. The assembled mutants leapt a one into the concealing and scratchy substance and took turns poking their heads out to scan the surroundings for a safe drop off point.

"Remember, keep your clothes on, I don't care how hot you get." Bianca instructed as she fought the hay to take a look out turn. There was a clenching feeling in her stomach that screamed at the snow leopard what a bad idea this whole goose chase was. Every sense she had was yelling at her to get out, now. But somehow she once again found herself unable to deprive her herd of some well-earned excitement and happiness. She really was too soft.

Sticking her head out of the hay, she saw a large gate with security guards getting further away from them.

Her stomach dropped like lead. She knew what that was, they all did, they'd all seen enough films to recognise a checkpoint when they saw one.

The city was on lock down.

_::Fallout::_

"Well we're in _ now_, might as well stay."

"Yeah its not like we can _leave _after all!" Bianca did so hate it when Jason stated the obvious. Only a couple of them appeared concerned, the rest seemed to think that this was either fate or just a better reason to stay.

Could they not see what she could? The giant wire mesh entrapping them in a cage? A cage of gigantic proportions, a boiling trap where they would surely melt or be discovered, with endless streams of people and dead ends, a cage by the beach…but a cage nonetheless.

Jason must have read the barely contained tension below her icy glare.

"Just go with it, what's the worst that could happen?" She turned to him, incredulous.

"Do you _really_ want me to answer that? Besides its not like we have a choice!" He merely rolled his eyes and moved over to talk to Taco, Kuro was watching them anxiously, and sidled over when the older mutant moved.

"What do you want to do?" The lynx questioned softly. Bianca looked into his electric blue eyes, laced with a nervous gold light. She knew in that instant that if it came down to a fight, he'd be beside her in a millisecond.

"I _don't_ want to do what we're going to have to… Which is try to blend into a distinctly normal city, which wont happen because we're at the beach, but decked out for the tundra, all to try and find some girl's father who may or may not be alive or even still here… And then get back out, through a series of security guards and gates and cameras, without loosing anyone to the draw of the ocean or shops or suburban life. And if _none_ of that gets us caught then I'm a sheep." She finished grumpily, and Kuro 'baa'd' in solidarity.

She heaved a sigh.

"We'll just have to wing it." She concluded.

"Shame so few of us have wings." Kuro added darkly.

_::Fallout::_

The herd abandoned the hay truck on Jessie's instructions, and begun sneaking through the waking city.

About the only thing keeping Bianca sane was the pre-dawn darkness, hopefully they would reach _somewhere_ safe before there was too much danger of being seen.

She hurried the herd through the city, all of her senses on hyper-alert, and at least the others seemed to be picking up on her caution, for now.

Eventually Jessie begun to slow with trepidation, and although the snow leopard couldn't blame her, she wished the bird girl would speed up.

They rounded a final corner to see a street of perfectly _domestic _houses. Two story buildings with sizeable gardens aligned in perfect symmetry with their fences and hedges, lawns a state of manicured bliss for a gardener.

The sight made Bianca's hair stand on end. This was all just _too_ normal, right out of a movie set, if the inhabitants knew there were nine child mutants walking down there street they'd surely be out with the torches and pitchforks. Vicious Chihuahuas at the ready.

Looking around Bianca saw Jessie streak ahead to a particular house, one just a little more overgrown then the ones next to it, but only just. There was a look of incredulous joy on her face. It took Bianca a few moments to realise that the girl had tears in her eyes.

Jason, Taco, Ant and Kuro were surrounding her curiously, Kuro met her gaze and nodded behind her.

Zenia, Neon and Ash were lurking a little way behind Bianca, they weren't going to approach this suspicious house unless she did.

It was hard to tell which of them was the most tense. The four hesitant mutants jumped severely when a thunderous knocking sounded from Jessie pounding the door.

"Daddy? Daddy are you there? It's _me!_ Daddy open up!" Bianca beat the nearer mutants to the bird girl, dragging her from the door and covering her mouth, panic stricken at the shouts being heard.

"Shhhh! Be a bit quieter alright!" Bianca pleaded in undertones. The herd swung around to see if they were about to be discovered.

Across the street a curtain twitched open. The herd was bathed in orange light.

In an instant the herd leapt to Bianca and Jessie, trying to disguise themselves in the unhelpfully short shrubbery.

Bianca could hear talking from the houses, footsteps to windows as curtains were being drawn back, beyond the rooftops, an entirely natural gold glow was creeping up to reveal the hiding mutants.

"Dammit!" Bianca hissed. There was only one possible avenue of escape, and it needed to be fast. Neon and Zenia were tensed for fight and flight, against _normal_ humans. If these people really _did_ take their torches and pitchforks to even those two mutants, it would be a massacre. 'Never cage an animal' she found herself thinking.

In split second timing, the oldest mutant swung to look at the only door that could offer potential sanctuary, and that could harm them the worst. But against the threat of a whole street, she'd pick one man.

"Guys, action!" Bianca grabbed the frozen Jessie round the waist and charged the white wooden door, she could take it.

The slam might have woken even more people. But in the seconds that followed the lock breaking, not a single human would have caught the other mutants sprinting over the threshold, before the door was kicked close.

_::Fallout::_

Zenia glanced up and into quaint suburbia. The calmly indistinguishable wallpaper colour, wooden varnished floors, ornaments sitting on dinky tables that vanished down a dark hall...

A slightly balding middle-aged man in a dressing gown staring blankly at them.

Zenia flinched along with the rest of the herd, and leapt backwards as she felt the subtle movements of her family doing the same thing.

Eight of the nine mutants slammed into the front door and each other, trapped against the threat outside and the threat within.

Next to her she could feel Neon shaking slightly, his thoughts swirling too fast for her to catch. Taco was pressed against Jason, Ant clung to Bianca who had positioned herself in front of the rest of them, Ash was pressed flat against the door, partly out of nerves, partly because there were seven other mutants pressing against her.

Zenia tried to ignore the thoughts of her family pressing against her mind, she'd gotten better at controlling her powers over the years, but in times of stress her control seemed to wane. She focused instead on the man in front of them.

"J-Jessie?" The stuttered question hung unanswered in the air, Jessie's eyes were bright and wide with conflicting thoughts.

Tension hung in the air for a few long moments. The herd waited silently to see whether they would be ruined or welcomed.

"Daddy!" Jessica threw herself into her father's arms, tears poured down both faces as they hugged for the first time in years.

The herd relaxed slightly, but remained in their positions by the door, unsure where they stood in this reunion.

"B-but how? When?" The baffled man glanced over to the frozen mutants invading his hall. "…Who?"

"These are the people who helped me escape… Without them, I'd be…I'd be…" Jessie trailed off as her voice choked, covering her face with her hands as memories consumed her.

Zenia turned her head away from the broken words coming from her mind, as if that would help. She could already feel a headache building up.

Jessie's father held her close as she sobbed, unshed tears in his own eyes as well.

Eventually, after herd had gotten uncomfortable with intruding on the scene, the man looked over at them.

"You set my daughter free, I don't know how I can thank you enough!"

"Not calling the cops on us would be a start." Zenia heard Bianca mutter. The man started to laugh, before he realised that the blonde was serious.

"I would never knowingly turn a child over to them! For today you can stay here, and I'll find homes for you."

"_What!_" The herd yelped as one…but in several different minds.

The puma girl looked around to meet Bianca's eyes before they turned to look at Taco and Ant, both of who had cried out in joy, rather then horror. Neon had shifted behind her, moving away from Jason, who was turning red at also having been with the 'joy' crowd.

Ash looked petrified, rooted to her spot plastered against the door, Kuro looked shocked, as though for once his brain had failed him.

"Urm, aha, we can't _stay_..at least not with people…if you haven't noticed, we're not exactly _human_." Bianca stuttered, allowing her beautiful, patterned tail to swish noticeably through the air.

"I don't care about that!" He sounded affronted, and drew himself up proudly whilst Jessie smiled.

"And neither will the families that I can place you with. There are more of us out there then you think that know all about those sick labs. And for some reason this town has quite a large percentage of people 'in the know' and parents of experiments."

"Are you sure that that's not just because they're trying to keep you all in one nice safe _controlled_ area?" Zenia nodded along with Kuro at Bianca's suspicions.

"They've taken too many children from this town," He begun darkly. "People begun to ask questions, schools loosing too many students, neighbours noticing when their pregnant friends came back from hospital without babies. There was a sudden mass exodus of scientists one year when the old hospital-turned-laboratory burnt down. Fearing a terrorist attack, the government set up the new security procedures, after all, this city receives a lot of off shore trade."

The herd gawped at his explanation, some having only understood half of it. The half that said there had been a lab _right here_ and that if they weren't careful the _government_ would discover all about them.

"We just _can't _stay here…" Bianca almost pleaded. Zenia had a choked feeling, trapped. Behind her Neon's heart had sped up past its normally fast pace.

"But you can't _leave_, you'll never get through, at least not all at once."

Bianca turned away from the man, her eyes wide.

'What are we going to do! What am _I_ going to do! Can't leave all at once? What does that even mean!' Bianca turned to Zenia who had breathed in sharply after hearing the elder's thoughts. Ice shadow blue eyes met light amethyst as Bianca thought slowly and clearly, just for her. 'I will _not_ leave anyone behind, we all go together, like always. Just be brave.'

Zenia nodded shakily, and Bianca turned back to Jessie's father.

"We appreciate this, we have nowhere else to go." The words sounded abnormal, none of them were very good at this sort of conversation (mostly because they _never_ had it, ever). What freaked Zenia out more then anything however, was the fact that Bianca was having to hand over her control, her solo role as head of the herd was now having to be slightly shared.

And no matter how nice this man seemed, she didn't trust him, she didn't trust _any_ adults. She well remembered what the last adults that were nice to her had turned out to be.

_::Fallout::_

Taco was enjoying herself. She had that wonderful mixture of excitement, adventure and happiness.

They were gong to get _families_! Real families! Ones that knew they were mutants, but didn't care! Sure maybe they were only families on loan, but it was better then having to change homes every other week, or day…

Taco couldn't say she was a religious person, she didn't really know what it was, but sometimes she felt sure that her parents were watching out for her, somewhere far away.

Thinking about them always made her sad, but also hopeful, as if they would look out for her no matter what. She had almost repressed the memory of that day, the day when everything had gone so wrong, sometimes she dreamt of it, of the blood, of the screams. But almost unconsciously she would prevent the memory reaching the tangible level of her cognition.

The chinchilla folded her hand around the cross around her neck. She preferred to believe that in some small way they lived on. They had guided her to meeting the herd, helped them escape, been with her through the worst experiments, the ones she still had the marks of. And now it seemed she was being guided to a loving home, if only temporarily, along with the rest of the herd, who seemed to have come under her parents protection also.

The young blonde looked across at Zenia, who was trying to sleep unsuccessfully next to her in the _humungous_ double bed. The dark haired girl had never spent a night away from Neon after escaping the lab, she hadn't slept in the lab without drugs either.

She felt sorry for Zenia, she had no trust of adults at all, her own mum and dad had betrayed her, they had been whitecoats all along, experimenting with her from the beginning.

Hopefully, a nice family would be exactly what she needed, what they all needed, and then they could all have sleepovers like on TV and then the herd would still be like a family themselves. As that's what they were anyway, a family.

Ash was sleeping fitfully in a sleeping bag on the floor, she seemed to be having a fight with the pillow. Taco had found the softness of the bed abnormal at first, but she was too excited to sleep anyway.

The boys were asleep downstairs in the sitting room. Jason and Ant seemed to have the right idea about family life, Jason probably was going to use this as a dry run before he found his real parents.

Kuro of course still remembered his family, or at least his sister, and so was probably confused about stuff. Neon seemed scared, mostly of the herd being split up, he was happiest when they were all together.

Taco understood that feeling, but all she had ever wanted was a family, somewhere constant to live.

How cool would it be if one family adopted all of them! But then it was also good to have your own family… But if they all lived next door to each other that would be amazing!

The door creaked open and Bianca's head slipped through, a sliver of the morning light coming in with her.

She looked tired, and older then she usually did, but with a touch of vulnerability that Taco hadn't seen before.

"Go so sleep Taco, when you wake up you can use the shower okay." She whispered in a slightly monotonous voice, before retreating back to where she was sharing Jessie's room.

Poor Bianca had never had a family, even Neon knew he had parents. Taco didn't even know if Bianca had ever thought of having a family, she always seemed to have to be so completely in control of her own fate, of all of their lives. She had made herself responsible for them even before they had broken out.

With all her heart Taco made a silent wish to her guardian parents that Bianca would find some happiness in a new family. The older girl had been taking care of Taco from the first day she arrived at the lab, and as far as she knew it had been the same for all of them. She needed to be taken care of herself for once. She increased her wish to include all of her family, including Ash, who had pretty much become part of the family anyway.

Finally the small mutant girl managed to fall asleep, with dawn creeping its golden light around the curtains.

_::Fallout::_

It was early afternoon by the time Jason made his way downstairs after enjoying the first real shower he'd had for longer then he cared to count.

Bianca, Ash and Neon were already sitting at the kitchen table, all of them were looking disgruntled and tired. Jason knew Neon hadn't slept, and it seemed that the two girls hadn't really either.

Although he did notice that they had all used the shower too, it wasn't until now that they were clean that he realized how grimy they had all been before.

Certainly he had forgotten the exact shade of reddish brown that his hair had used to be. Neon's iridescent streaks seemed to be almost glowing in the sun, Ash's long hair looked silky and had previously unnoticed highlights as it fell strait down her back, Bianca's hair looked even whiter-blonde than it usually did, and the small silver snow leopard ears looked almost ridiculously cute and fluffy.

Their faces however, showed no expression of joy for their new cleanness. It was like a funeral had taken place in the kitchen.

Jessie and her father looked highly relieved to see him.

"Good morning! Or, well afternoon I suppose! Is there anything you'd like to eat? Cereal, eggs, toast, bacon, sandwiches…anything?" The poor man seemed almost desperate to break the morose silence, Jason noticed that none of the three at the table had had anything to eat.

"Uh, toast and eggs would be great!" Jason caught the relief of both father and daughter at his words, and immediately begun rushing around the kitchen.

Jason moved over to sit beside Neon, but felt a sharp pang when the younger mutant shifted away from him.

Both his eyes and emotions showed hurt in them, and Jason didn't need to probe further to read the betrayal the flamingo felt.

"Hey what's wrong?" Bianca and Ash switched to listen, Neon shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, unwilling to answer, but similarly compelled to.

"You don't care that we're all going to be split up." Jason felt a momentary wash of guilt. Of course in this matter, his family was in two halves. Jason just wanted some peace and quiet for a while, he thought that as they couldn't leave anyway, they deserved some normalcy, he anted to remember what it was like to have a family, so that he could see if he was ready to find his own.

Taco and Ant shared his optimism, and Kuro would go along with it for his own reasons, he would never leave the herd.

Of course Neon and Zenia, and probably Ash, had very little trust for those outside the herd, for good reasons as well. And Bianca had never known anything else. To them the herd was everything. Ash may fair a little better being on her own, although Jason liked to think that she had become emotionally attached to the herd.

"We won't be separated completely, we can still see each other!" Neon evidently didn't believe him, and curled up on his chair.

"Of course you'll all see each other! You'll all be going to school on Monday! I've arranged it all, so don't worry." If the man thought his words would bring relaxation, he was wrong.

"School!" Bianca yelped, her shock preventing her from communicating further, she merely gaped. Ash looked even more concerned now, and Neon had retreated into himself completely.

Throughout the course of the afternoon, the rest of the herd assembled and Jessie's dad made several long phone calls.

The atmosphere was a mixture of tension and excitement.

At about five the doorbell rung, Jessie's father leapt up as the herd froze in their various positions around the kitchen.

"Wh-who's that?" Bianca questioned cautiously.

"Why, I think that will be some of your new families."

Jason watched the hilarious change of Bianca's face from concerned, to downright horrified. You'd have thought she'd been grounded already!

::Just a quick note! If you have any funny ideas for different families they can get stuck with, please let me know! I have a few ideas but I always like hearing more! Similarly any school situations, shall be trying to put the spa idea that was suggested in soon. Finally as they're going to school, this is the perfect opportunity for romance to happen! If you don't say anything to me though I wont give your character any romance. Can be as serious/unserious/fickle/random/extreme as you want!

::Pst, I know the events of this chapter (and story) are unlikely, but the whole book was anyway! :P Also, next chapter may see some of the new characters! I'm going to allow them to develop though, as they will be in the home/school situation for a while and so it doesn't have to be as sudden as previous characters, that way we all get to know them better :)

::Please review, thanks for reading, shadowtheo.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon, credit for other characters where it's due!

Sorry that this took so long people! And that it's so long! But this chappie has _each_ of the characters points of view as they go to their new home, so I hope you enjoy!

Maximum Fallout: 12

Ant held his breath as Jessie's father jogged to the door. What would these families be like? Would his real parents, wherever they are, be upset that they were being replaced? Or would they be happy that he was going to a potentially loving home?

Ant suddenly knew how all those dogs at pounds must feel each time someone comes through those doors.

The herd were peering around the door cautiously as a trio of people were led into the sitting room. Ant couldn't make out their faces.

His heart begun to race, around him the herd seemed to be a complex jumble of emotions. Where they were all usually so in-sync there was now chaos. The arctic wolf glanced up to Jason, who sure enough had a pinched face from the emotional overload being thrown his way.

Ant had no psychic power to his knowledge, but with what he called his 'wolf sense' he could just tell what people were like.

Sniffing deeply, he tried to catch the scent of the family that had come in, but mostly caught overwhelming perfume. Underneath however, there was the unmistakable smell of dog.

The smell calmed Ant somehow, if these people had dogs, how bad could they be?

Jessie's father returned to the entrance to the kitchen where he was eyed suspiciously by half of the herd.

"Um, well, the Greens' are very excited about fostering one of you-"

"Only _one_?" Cut in Bianca, to the nodding of Zenia, Neon and Ash.

"Well yes, they have quite a sizeable home, but keep very busy schedules." He paused to see whether he would be interrupted again. "They have one daughter, aged sixteen, so someone who doesn't mind sharing would be a good choice, and ideally someone who is good with dogs, as they not only have two of their own, but frequently walk the neighbours and go to dog shows. A healthy lifestyle and a love of exercise is key."

The herd gawped attractively at him for a bit, completely stumped.

"Y-You mean, _we_ get to choose _them_?" Kuro stammered.

"You mean we have to choose _who_ goes with them?" Bianca questioned.

"Well of course usually whichever of us families that finds someone like you questions them and then makes arrangements based on who would work best with who. However, there are so many of you this time, that I have called several families and we can match up people based on suitability here!"

He seemed quite impressed with his own idea, the rest of the herd looked from excited to shocked to appalled.

"So, does anyone like the sound of them, or can any of you think which of you would be suitable? We shouldn't leave them waiting long, they're very keen to meet you."

Seeing the guarded looks he swiftly added, "You can talk to them here first, and if you get on then you can go home with them, and if not wait for another family."

Bianca sighed in defeat and looked around hopelessly; she would be torn apart by having to pick someone to send out alone into an unknown world. Ant hated seeing her worry; she was the closest thing he'd had to a mother since he was taken to the lab.

He took another sniff, and the welcoming scent of dog hit him. He knew what he had to do, and wasn't scared in the least about these people, a strange sense of being older filled him.

"I'll go meet them."

Jessie's father looked delighted, Bianca looked as if she might cry or faint.

"Ant, you don't have to do anything you don't want to,"

"But I _do_ want to, we've all been looking for parents, and these people have been looking for children, and I want to give them the chance to find it. I'm not scared Bianca."

The rest of the herd were staring at him as if seeing him for the first time, Bianca shook her head to clear it and offered Ant a sad little smile.

"Okay, go get 'em gorgeous." Ant beamed back, something seemed to have changed just then, on his way to the sitting room, Ant realised Bianca was trying to let herself let him go.

_::Fallout::_

The family was a strange one. Both the parents were tall and blonde, dressed smartly but comfortably, the lady had her hair tied in a tight ponytail, the man's hair was so short Ant wasn't sure how he could tell that it was blonde. Squished undignified in-between them, was the grumpiest and strangest girl Ant had ever seen. Which was saying something considering that the girls _he_ knew often cam with tails attached.

Ant wasn't sure he'd ever seen anyone with a nose piercing, or so many in her ears, and her hair seemed to have so many shades of red, pink and purple in them that he wasn't sure how it could also look black. She sat in stark contrast to her well-groomed parents with their impeccable clothes wearing very baggy black jeans and a humungous black hoodie.

She had looked quite uninterested with the situation until she caught site of Ant's large fluffy white ears and tail, her eyes seemed to light up as she leaned forwards.

"Are you a _wolf_!" She asked excitedly, in a higher voice then Ant was expecting. "I thought we were just going to get another horse!"

Ant blinked, he'd never even heard of there being horse mutants, and how had this family met so many? But then maybe that was what the nearest lab to here specialised in, just like theirs had specialised on mammals and others seemed to pick birds, or animal combinations.

"Suzan!" Her mother admonished in a worried tone. "We haven't even said hello yet! And he might not want to tell us!"

"But he's not even hiding them! Why should he care what we think of them!"

"Suzan listen to your mother." Jessie's father cleared his throat and the trio seemed to become aware that they were arguing in front of their potential new son.

"Oh it's alright, I don't mind!" Ant swiftly hurried to assure the parents. "And yes, I'm and arctic wolf." As soon as Ant saw the joy that filled her eyes, he knew that they would get along fine.

"Well wow! I bet you can run pretty fast then can't you sport?" The father enthused.

Ant wasn't sure what he meant by saying 'sport' but nodded anyway.

"Yeah I'm quite fast, not as fast as Zenia though, and I'm better at long distances really." Ant blushed slightly and shuffled his feet as the man beamed at him.

"Honestly you two so many questions!" The woman teased, then turned to Ash with a warm smile.

"Hi there. My name's Julie, Julie Green, and this is my husband Mark and daughter Suzan," ant caught the muttered 'its _Suzie_' from the girl and fought the urge to laugh, before realizing that Julie and Mark were looking at him expectantly.

"Oh! I'm Ant, or Anthony, but just call me Ant!" He smiled and they smiled back.

"Well Ant I'm sure you've been told we have a very active lifestyle and two dogs at home, a Labrador and a St Bernard, they're both pretty big boys so I hope your all right with dogs!"

"Yep I like dogs!" Something told Ant that for now he should avoid mentioning his ability to talk to dogs, at least for the moments.

"Well then that sounds ideal!" Mark boomed merrily, Suzan nodded and smiled.

"Well Ant, would you like to come home with us?" Julie asked sincerely. As she leaned forward the light caught her blonde hair, turning it lighter. It was still shades darker then Bianca's hair, but Ant found the resemblance reassuring.

"Yeah, um yes thank you!" Ant stuttered, his heart felt like it did when looking over a gap that fell from a great height, but knowing that for him it was just one simple leap to get across.

Throughout saying goodbye to the herd, they was constantly reminded by Jessie's dad that they would see each other at school on Monday, which was the day after tomorrow. Ant wasn't entirely sure about going to school, after all, other then being taught to talk and other basic skills at the lab, they had taught themselves everything else they knew from Kuro's laptop, and they hadn't ever bothered with stuff like school subjects.

Everyone engulphed in a group hug, an then individual hugs with Ant, his new parents seemed to think they were all very sweet, but strange, they'd be seeing each other soon after all.

Bianca knelt down to hug him for a last time as his new family turned to leave.

"I want you to remember _everything_, the way there, the layout of the house, don't let yourself get trapped there, I don't care how nice they are." She whispered so that no one else would hear, Ant was exceedingly good at remembering things, he could visualise everywhere they had ever lived and how to get there, every nook of every cave. He could remember the way no problem.

Ant looked into the familiar ice blue eyes, shining unusually brightly due to having a clean face and hair.

"I will, I'll see you guys soon!" Ant added the last part to everyone, and got smiles back. Although some, particularly Ash's smile, seemed rather strained.

With a last wave he was whisked out of the house and into a large SUV, his beanie hat once again hiding his ears, his tail wrapped around his waist under his jumper, and clutching his backpack, which held all of his possessions.

_::Fallout::_

Zenia felt sort of hollow, Ant was like her little brother, and there he had gone, merrily walking away from them with strangers. She had little time to dwell on it though, as within a minute of Ant leaving, there was another knock.

"Oh that'll be the Moore's!" Jessie's dad scampered energetically to the door. The herd held their breath again.

The man had barely opened the door when two very elegantly dressed people burst through it. Zenia looked on in shock as the women approached the group. She was dressed in a knee length dress with lace around the neck and had a fancy looking coat, the man was wearing a very smart suit.

The strange couple started towards the group.

"Now, let's see what we've got here, what can I work with?" The woman mused seemingly to herself whilst her moustached husband nodded along.

The herd backed up slightly as she approached them, but there was nothing but serious intrigue and excitement in her eyes.

Gradually her look swept over them as she commented on their apparent faults.

"Hair far too long, and such an unlikely shade! Hmm too pale, not to mention the ferocious and even odd eyes. Too young, and hair _so_ white! Hmm much too punk, red tipped hair indeed! I don't care for older boys. Oh this ones yours isn't it Mr. Anderson? Oh dear oh dear, what on earth is all this hair doing on a boy, and such a strange style! Ah, now what have we here…

Zenia gulped as the woman bent slightly to look at her face.

"My my! Alfred darling! Look at this!" Her husband strolled closer and also peered at her. The herd were bending to try and see what had caught their attention about her so much.

Zenia and the lady's eyes caught, and she noticed that they were almost the exact same shade as hers, only lighter.

"Look dear, her eyes! They're almost the same as mine! So finely shaped, just like a cat's. And that shade, so deep, so illusive, so…infatuating."

The rest of the herd were trying not to laugh, and failing badly, Zenia could hear little snorts in the background at the words of the lady, half of which she didn't understand anyway.

"And such velvet black hair, with such delightful purple tips!"

"Oh so tips are _delightful_ now are they?" Kuro mocked in the background, and Zenia couldn't help but flush in embarrassment. But then the woman gently tilted her head up with silk-gloved hands. The puma-girl didn't think she'd ever felt anything so soft.

"You have such good bone structure dear, but you would look even more stunning if you got more food." She cursed her stomach as it grumbled at the thought of food.

"Would you give us the pleasure of providing you a place to live in whilst you're here?" Alfred nodded in the background.

Zenia could admit to herself she was slightly infatuated with the pair of them, the man had kind features, and the woman had her own eyes, and neither of them had said that she needed to be 'cared for'.

"Um, sure, ok." She mumbled as she blushed more.

"Remember to pronunciate, now what's your name?" The lady reprimanded, much to the hilarity of the rest of the herd.

"Zenia."

"Oh, _Zenia_…how perfect! Now come along, we have much to do to settle you in."

Zenia was allowed to give several hasty goodbyes to the herd, which were still grinning. Neon's smile was rather strained, and Zenia looked deep into those familiar sky blue eyes.

"I don't want you to go." Zenia didn't need to read minds to know that was what he was thinking. She'd looked into those eyes every day since they'd escaped the lab, fallen asleep next to Neon every night. Now for the first time she faced an entire day, 24 hours, without him. It hurt to think of, and Zenia found her eyes prickling in a most abnormal way at the thought of it.

As if sensing her turmoil, after all Neon was feeling the same way she knew it, the flamingo wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace that she returned. Zenia relaxed in the familiar embrace, but blinked in surprise as she felt the whisper soft touch of his feathers against her skin as his wings folded around her.

A smile lit her amethyst eyes. Neon _never_ showed his wings to anyone outside the herd, but today they were on show just for her. And she realised, that not even the finest silk would ever feel softer then his wings.

_::Fallout::_

Neon hated this. Really, really hated it.

He could understand _why_ they had to split up, he just didn't see why they couldn't beat some people up and run away like they usually did. He knew they could escape the town of they really tried. His family could do anything.

Ant had been taken away, now Zenia. At least the humans had felt friendly, if there were any bad vibes Zenia or Jason would have been able to pick up on it, and the rest of them were pretty good at picking up on bad guys as well.

They had had to wait for half an hour until he next family arrived to pick up one of them. Jessie's father had just finished talking to the large family and was now coming to speak to them.

"Well, the Fisher's would like to do things a little differently. They want to speak to each of you individually until they find their perfect match. They have brought their family pet as well, and they run an animal rescue centre. Mr and Mrs Fisher have four daughters as well."

The herd were looking stunned at the large amount of children, so he continued.

"Let's start with the oldest shall we?" He looked between them as if hoping to be able to discern the oldest by sight alone. Jason, Bianca and Kuro shared a glance before the snow leopard-girl stepped forwards.

After a couple of minutes, Bianca walked out of the sitting room looking frazzled, the loud barking of a big dog followed her out. Jason and Kuro started to laugh.

"You think its funny! Its your turn with Kujo next hotshot!" Jason paled slightly before swallowing and heading to his fate.

Jason's time was even shorter with the dog, Kuro didn't even get through the door.

"How old are you?" Ash asked Neon quietly, eyeing he door warily. Barely audible over the barking were several high-pitched voices soothing the canine. Neon got the impression that ash was more wary of the thought of living with four hyper _normal_ girls then the thought of one vicious dog. Non couldn't blame her, but he liked the wolf-hawk-girl, so he shook himself into a more confident position, pulled in his wings and walked to the door.

The door creaked open and he walked through it to see a family of brunettes holding onto the biggest dog Neon had ever seen.

It was an enormous fluffy monstrosity, a mottled dusty brown with a darker face and a curled over tail. The family's restraint on the dog was merely precautionary it seemed, and quite unnecessary, it as sitting quite docilely, panting up at him.

"Well hello there! Maximum here seems to like you, which is always a good start!"

Neon looked at the smiling family and sat down on the chair opposite. Maximum started sniffing his feet.

"My name is Luke Fisher, this is my wife Mina and my four daughters, Sassy, Missy, Lilly and Lexie." Each member waved in turn as introduced. Neon committed their names and images to memory. The man was powerfully built, and about the same height as Jason, he looked like a bison. Mina was petite, but emitted confidence, she was similar to a cat. Sassy had pixie short hair cut elegantly, and looked interested but slightly superior, like a lioness. Missy had scatty hair that seemed to fall around her face in any direction, she was grinning mischievously like a monkey. Lilly was quite calm with long, neat hair that fell dead straight, she looked smart though, like an owl. Lexie seemed to be Lilly's twin, but had her hair shorter, she looked at him in a calculating way, but with a grin on her face, Neon decided she was like a hyena.

"And this is Maximum, or Max, he's a Caucasian Mountain dog. He's very powerful and he's our guard dog for the rescue centre. We need to be sure that whoever we take home is compatible with him."

Neon nodded, and bent down to Maximum's level, touching noses with him in a greeting that he'd seen Ant do to a dog once. Maximum swiftly proceeded to lick his face, wagging his tail happily.

The family looked on in pleasant surprise as Neon wiped his face.

"So-" Begun Sassy.

"What kind-" Missy continued.

"Of mutant are you?" Lilly and Lexie finished.

"Yes, I was wondering that myself, that is if you don't mind sharing." Mina put in encouragingly.

Neon drew himself up, prepared for the worst, personally, he was proud of being a flamingo, but other people didn't seem to think that it was as good to be a flamingo as he did.

"I'm part flamingo." The family blinked, and continued to stare as if in disbelief. Eventually, Luke spoke.

"You don't, um _look_ like a flamingo though." Neon had known this would come, and shifted uncomfortably. He may be proud of being a flamingo, but they were _his _wings, he had been through so much with them, and because of them. In one experiment they had tried to surgically remove and re-attach one of his wings, to reconnect the nerves and see if he could still function. It hadn't worked, and he'd dragged his right wing around with it trailing on the floor for months before they decided he was a lost cause and gave him to the erasers. That was the first time he had flown, barely, the adrenalin somehow jump-starting the dead nerve endings. The memory of that and so many more countless experiments would never leave him.

Neon drew his wings in further as he shuddered. His wings meant both freedom and pain to him, and he only really felt comfortable showing them with the flock, who had faced the same, and would understand.

Just as dark memories of cages and needles started tearing at the corners of his mind, Maximum jumped up onto him, knocking him and the chair to the floor in a furry ball.

"Maximum!" Luke yelped in shock. But Neon wasn't worried, the massive dog was looking into his eyes with some emotion that Ant would instantly understand but he could only guess at. Whatever it was, /neon found it comforting.

Without really following the rest of what happened, Neon was suddenly saying goodbye to the rest of the herd for the time being. There were many hugs, especially from Taco, who seemed both very happy and sad that he was leaving with a family. Neon understood how she felt, in the way that he could understand her because their minds were both different in the same way. Like how he could understand Zenia without even trying, there was just something that connected them.

Jason seemed to be suffering slightly as he hugged Neon fiercely.

"If they hurt you, I'll kill them." The kangaroo muttered to him in a damaged way. Neon smiled at him slightly. Jason was like a big brother he supposed, but he knew somehow that these people would never hurt him.

_::Fallout::_

Ash was finding it harder then she thought she would. Looking back the wolf-hawk-girl could hardly believe that she had only met the herd a week or so ago.

She had been praying that little Ant would have been able to live in the same house as her, then she could have kept watching over him. It had physically hurt her to see him go. Zenia had left bravely, Ash had thought she would have had to be dragged tooth and nail through the door. Neon too, she thought he would have freaked out and tried to fly through a window. She was fond of that flamingo, but he was a birdbrain.

Within just a few minutes of Neon's departure, the door was knocked yet again. It was getting quite dark by this time and the herd were getting restless. Jason seemed to be suffering particularly from Neon leaving, Taco was a little sadder and less hyper now. Bianca looked slightly lost, but trying to hold it together, Kuro was holding up ok, but he seemed to keep looking around as if just realising that not all of them were there anymore.

Ash turned her attention to the door along with the rest of the herd as they stood to order.

The smell hit her before she saw the people.

A familiar scent, but one from so long ago she had nearly forgotten, one from back at the lab. One that, at least back then, had meant friendship in the hardest of times.

"Guys," she begun quietly, so that only her new family would hear her, "mind if I take this one? There's something about them I've gotta check out."

Bianca gave her an appraising look.

"Just don't put yourself into danger, not alone anyway." Ash smiled faintly, before the herd came along, she couldn't remember the last time she had heard a friendly word.

"I'll be careful." She assured, and Bianca nodded, smiling.

"Then good luck."

The family turned out to be pretty indistinct, pleasant enough people, Ash didn't get much of a feeling from them. She could tell that they were nervous, but wanted to help.

"We currently have another child like you that we're looking after. We hope you're okay with that." The woman said, smiling. Ash noted the words 'child' and 'looking after' with distaste, but put it down to two honest and kind people out of their league.

"Yes that's fine, I'm sure we'll get along." Ash knew she sounded fairly monotonous, but it was better then usual when she met new people, it was a safety mechanism that was hard to put aside.

"Well then, lets go get you settled in!" The man suggested jovially. Ash managed a smile, and tried to remind herself why she was doing this so readily, and that she would see the herd the day after tomorrow.

Her goodbyes were surprisingly emotional, Taco even gave her a hug, Bianca didn't say a word, but held her close for a while. Ash felt fondness for them all that she hadn't felt for a long time, and gave a genuine smile as she left.

After all, she _did_ have to leave, if that smell was real, then she needed answers.

_::Fallout::_

If her ears had been as manoeuvrable as her animal counterpart, Taco was sure that they'd be pointing to attention to catch what was being said in the room next door with the next family.

So far half the herd had been placed with a family, and Taco couldn't wait for hers. What would they be like? Old? Young? Would she have siblings? She hoped so, otherwise it just wouldn't feel right after the herd.

Everyone had left with surprisingly good manners for mutants that grew up from cages to caves. Although she had thought that Zenia might cry when she left. And it was hard seeing them go, harder then she thought it would have been.

And now Bianca was talking to the new family. Would she leave next? A moment of panic washed over her, somehow the thought of Bianca walking away from her was a scary one, scarier then if _she_ walked away from the older girl.

As if sensing her turmoil, which he probably was, Jason reached out and squeezed her hand, sending her some comfort.

Taco sighed and tried to calm herself. This was what she wanted after all, she should be happy, not sad. And besides, they'd see each other in a day or two at school. Occasionally the herd had had to split up to get out of a situation, but this felt different, too planned.

Pulling herself together she went over what she knew about _this_ family.

They had a few other foster children, but none of them were mutants. But other children _wer_eone of the things that Taco wanted. They seemed nice enough too, and they'd looked after several children over the years till they found a permanent home. They had a small garden area, were near several parks and tennis court things. They didn't have a huge house, but whomever they took home could have their own room.

Taco liked the sound of it all very much. But what if the family didn't want her? What if they wanted someone else? As her head spun Bianca came out of the room, shaking her head slightly at Jason and Kuro.

The kangaroo pulled her hand forward so that she stumbled towards the room.

"Go on Taco, see if you like them." He coaxed gently. The chinchilla-girl nodded and smiled in an uncertain way, but headed into the room none the less.

She was greeted by two smiling people, one older woman with sandy blonde hair and brown eyes, and an older man with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Taco smiled at them and how domestic they looked.

They hadn't dressed up for the occasion, but didn't look too scruffy either.

"Hello there, we're Hazel and Jack Salt, it's a pleasure to meet you." The woman begun, and the man reached out to shake her hand, which she found strange but complied anyway.

Taco stared at them a little more, before realising that she should return the name giving.

"Oh I'm Taco!" She grinned, but the two people opposite her stared in confusion.

"Your name is…Taco?" The ma queried bemusedly.

"Oh! Well, it's really Kaylee, Kaylee Tataya, but I prefer Taco, its more fun I think!" They nodded slowly, and Taco felt she was loosing the battle to win them over.

"B-but you can call me Kaylee if you want." The name rolled of her tongue in a strange way, since her discovery of tacos after escaping the lab, she hadn't been called anything else.

"If you're sure, then that would be easier for us." This time the woman's smile was genuine.

"Well I'm sure you've heard about us a little, we'll be happy to give you a safe house with your own room to stay in whilst you're with us, although you might have to get a little part time job to help out with costs." Jack spoke whilst Hazel gave him a slightly exasperated look.

"You don't have to worry about that for the moment Kaylee." She swiftly assured.

"I don't mind working!" Taco announced, and she didn't, the idea of a real part time job to help support a real family was just so quaint. It was hilarious, and yet exciting at the same time.

"Okay, well, is there anything you want to ask us?" Jack asked.

Taco thought for a minute, before deciding that to not ask anything might seem uninterested.

"Um, why do you foster so many people?" She was curious about the answer, these families they had met today were selfless in a way she'd never encountered before.

The husband and wife shared a look that spoke of many emotions.

"Well the truth is Kaylee, that we were never able to have children of our own, even though we wanted to have some of our own someday. We decided to adopt, but when we went to the orphanage, there were so many older kids there that didn't have a stable home to grow up in. We heard about fostering to help children adapt before they went on to a permanent home and thought it was a good idea, so we tried it. Although some we just couldn't give up in the end." The two smiled fondly at each other, Taco felt her heart break a little.

It was exactly like she'd been thinking, just like the herd were looking for families, these people were looking for children. She just knew she _had_ to go home with these people.

"Um, if it would be okay with you," She blurted out, unsure on her position. "I would like to go home with you…"She trailed off, hands clasped tightly in front of her, as if pleading with them.

Hazel and Jack looked stunned, but swiftly their shock changed to delight.

"That's just fine kiddo." Jack smiled, and Taco beamed.

Bianca held onto her tight as they said goodbye, Taco tried to pt all of her happiness that she couldn't express into the hug, so that the older girl wouldn't be worried.

Kuro ruffled her hair affectionately.

"Take care Tacs!" She smiled, but smacked him lightly at the name.

"Yeah, see you Monday." Jason added with a grin and a hug.

"I'll be fine, see you guys soon!" Taco called as she turned to leave, threading her hands into Hazel and Jack's as she squeezed in between them to walk to her new home.

_::Fallout::_

Jason was feeling nervous, very nervous. This was mainly thanks to Bianca and Kuro also feeling nervous, and him picking up on it.

Kuro was lounging nonchalantly against the wall, trying to look relaxed, he pulled it off very well, if you couldn't sense emotions. Bianca wasn't hiding it, and was puling loose hairs out of her tail, a small pile of fluff building up around her feet. Now that the younger mutants had been taken away be their new families, she didn't have to pretend to be strong any more. Although, they'd all known each other long enough to know when one of them was pretending.

The door was knocked once again and Mr. Anderson, aka Jessie's dad, opened the door to a woman with short brown hair who looked anxious.

"Would you like to wait in the lounge?" Just as they headed in that direction, the door was knocked again.

This time it opened to a tall dark skinned man. When the two adopters saw each other, there was a definite tension, the woman swore quietly and both looked decidedly away from each other.

"Um, well, shall we start with you Juliet and then we'll get round to you James." Mr. Anderson bumbled, nearly pushing the woman into the lounge. "In fact James, why don't you start talking to the kids in the kitchen. Does one of you three want to go into the lounge?" He called back at them.

Bianca plainly shot them both a look saying 'I'm not leaving before you guys do' and turned to sit at the far end of the table.

Kuro shrugged at him, and gestured that he could go to the sitting room.

Jason sighed and turned to face his little experiment: domestic living. If he could pass this test, he could find his own family.

The woman was fidgeting slightly when he came in, looking nervous and angry at the same time. But Jason could sense that it wasn't directed at him.

"So, I take it that you don't like that man then." He begun conversationally, and she jumped.

"Uh, well I guess you could say that." She mumbled before turning to look at him. "Um, I haven't ever taken care of a child or teenager before, but you look quite capable of taking care of yourself so…" she trailed off absently, blushing slightly.

"I guess what I'm saying is, I can give you somewhere to stay and cook your meals for you, but I'm very busy at my job for most of the day and night so I wont be around all the time, you'll have a pretty free reign ha ha." She laughed nervously, and Jason couldn't help but smile at her simple terms. She was young, maybe in her twenties, and he just couldn't see her as a 'mother' figure, but that was okay.

"What is your job? How come you have to work both day and night?" Jason couldn't see why anyone would let themselves do such a long shift, but at the question, she lost her nervousness and became excited.

"Well, I run a wildlife rescue centre, its sort of what's become of my garden really, and I'm the only person that's there all the time, the volunteers do shifts you see. And you can help out if you want, or you don't have to either." She added the last part quickly.

Jason smiled, this was sounding good, he got to be with animals, which the whole herd loved, for obvious reasons. He could do his own thing, but in a domestic environment, and still have something occupying to do.

"Wildlife is cool, I'd like to help out." Juliet beamed at him.

"Oh, I also have a dog and a cat, so I hope you're not allergic!"

"Nope, not a problem." They smiled a bit unsurely.

"Well, that's great then, I'm very happy to offer you my home if you want it."

"Yeah, I think that'd be cool."

_::Fallout::_

Kuro sat opposite James as Jason and Juliet talked in the next room.

"So what was all the tension about?" He warded off his nerves by feigning confidence in the situation.

"Well, we just broke up a couple of weeks ago. I didn't think she was going to be here too." He grinned, but it was tinged with fatigue at the situation.

"Anyway, I have a flat at the moment, two bedrooms, one bathroom, and I have a dog and a cat."

He was short and to the point, Kuro found himself warming to the man.

"I like animals." The man smiled.

"Well that's good, because I think you'll have to help me at work, I work at a wildlife rescue centre… _her_ wildlife recue centre…" He looked decidedly uncomfortable, Kuro laughed before he could help himself.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh, but it _is_ pretty funny." Luckily the man grinned too.

"Don't I just know it." He glanced at Bianca, who was staring resolutely at the wall opposite, before turning back to Kuro with a questioning look.

"Don't worry about her, but she probably wont go home with you, she wants to see us all leave first." James looked confused, so Kuro added. "She's just a control freak." He tried to ignore the glare he received, knowing he wasn't really in trouble.

The man's face turned from amused to abashedly curious as he looked between the two of them.

"Are those _cat ears_ I can see on her head?" He whispered, not knowing that she would still hear every word. Kuro felt a shake of nerves, wasn't he told about what they were?

As if sensing Kuro's anxiousness he continued.

"I knew that you were um, _unique_, but I didn't expect… I don't know what I expected…" He trailed off hopelessly, looked apologetic. Kuro sighed thankfully.

"Yeah, most of us have something like that." He smiled at the man's curious glance over him. "Its okay, I don't mind." Slowly he reached up and pulled his hood down from his head, revealing his large red-tufted lynx ears.

James face became slightly awed as he made his ears twitch and rotate to catch the sounds around them. Bianca was watching half curious, half cautious at the man's reaction.

"Can I?" He asked, gesturing to touch Kuro's ears.

"Sure, just don't pull them." James reached out and gently stroked his right ear, like one would do to a cat.

"I can't quite believe it!" James murmured in awe, and then withdrew his hand.

"That's nothing, you should see Bianca's tail." James looked around to the snow leopard girl at the name in amazement, but she just smirked slightly and turned away. Kuro could tell by her slight blush that he had managed to appeal to her vain spot.

"Well, if you don't mind the work, animals and living high up, you're very welcome in my home." James smiled, and Kuro grinned. He didn't really know what he was looking for in this adopt-a-family scheme they had going, but at least he got on with this man, and he imagined that most people would freak if they ever saw his ears, which labelled this man as better then most in his mind.

"Sounds cool to me."

_::Fallout::_

Not wanting to appear too sentimental, Kuro looped Bianca into a brief hug, but upon feeling how tense she was decided a little bit of sentimentality would be fine.

"Hey, its okay, we'll all see each other in a couple of days."

"I know, go on, get out of here." She muttered, but gave him a small smile anyway.

"So long B!" He called, heading to the door. Jason gave Bianca a more substantial hug that she returned before heading to where Juliet was waiting outside. He himself followed James out of the house, relishing the slight coolness of the night.

_::Fallout::_

Torture, that's what it had been. She'd have rather gone another round at the lab then have to see them all leave her again.

She knew they were happy, but it still hurt. She knew she'd see them soon, but she already missed them.

Now she was sitting quietly in the kitchen, Jessie's dad talking about how the 'Quinn's' would be here soon. Jessie looked over at her from across the table.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll like them, we'll find you a family." The earnesty in Jessie's voice was painful to hear. The winged girl had only ever wanted to get back to her family, to her it was the most important thing in the world. She just didn't realize that Bianca already _had_ a family, and they'd just been taken away from her.

Before she slipped into dark thoughts, Bianca smiled warmly at Jessie, the girl was trying her best after all.

"I know, I'm not worried." Whatever family she got stuck with she could live with it.

As if on that thought, the door was knocked yet again.

"Ah! That'll be them!" Mr. Anderson rushed for the door, and let in the two most randomly dressed people Bianca had ever seen. As they rushed forwards to the kitchen in excitement Bianca realized they weren't _badly_ dressed, in fact they both looked very good, but they were wearing cloths Bianca had never seen the like of before. There was so much detail or layers and colours that it was a visual onslaught until the stopped moving.

"Don't mind our appearance dear, we just came from one of our runway shows!" The woman babbled, fishing in her handbag.

"Runway…?" Bianca mumbled, wondering what they meant, the man was now helping the woman look through her enormous cherry-red handbag.

"The Quinn's are a fashion designing couple." Jessie's dad hastened to explain, seeing her confusion.

"Wow, that would be cool, with your hair I could see you in fashion B!" Bianca suspected that Jessie was being overly enthusiastic in the hope of cheering her up, but Bianca was beyond feeling anything but shock, as the Quinn's had just managed to retrieve a tape measure from the bag.

"Now stand still dear, we knew we wanted to take home a girl, but we have one test to see if it's compatible!" The woman continued, rushing around her with great purpose, measuring in frenzy.

Bianca could have knocked them both out in one move, but they felt decidedly harmless.

"Well the measurements look good, lets try the final step!" After some more rummaging in the bag a large parcel came out.

"This is our latest piece of day-wear, created just for this occasion! If it suits you, we'd just love to take you home!" The man explained, Bianca tried to keep up, but failed, this world was foreign to her.

Jessie sad something to the woman, took the package and led the stunned snow leopard by the arm to the lounge.

"Just try the dress on, and if they like you in it, you can go home with them, that sounds okay right?" Jessie smiled encouragingly.

"Okay, guess I can do that…" Jessie beamed and left the room. Bianca unfolded the dress from its wrappings.

It was based with a creamy white colour, and printed, ironically enough, with multicoloured birds on branches with leaves and pink flowers. The bottom had a short layer of frills and it tied around the back of the neck.

Bianca didn't think shed ever worn anything so meticulously crafted, or so colourful, or so clean, or new, and lots of other new scary things.

There was no mirror in the room she was in, so once the dress was on, she walked back next door, acutely aware of just how much skin, tail and ear she was showing.

As she entered the kitchen again, the woman let out a high pitched noise of excitement at the sight of her, and the man's face lit up, making her feel decidedly uncomfortable. Jessie and her father's stunned faces didn't help the feeling.

"Have you seen yourself? You're just perfect in it!" The woman exclaimed.

"No, there wasn't a mirror." Her arm was grabbed as the woman led her through the house, apparently having been there before.

Soon they were in front of a full-length mirror, and Bianca felt like she was looking at a familiar stranger. A very well groomed, well-dressed stranger hat wasn't quite her. And yet, there was her tail, fluffed up slightly and making the dress poof slightly at the back, and her ears, sticking up through the white blonde hair she'd come to love.

"With heels it would be perfect-" She became aware of the babbling in the background gradually.

"Why, why put _me_ in a dress like this?" Bianca asked quietly, and the Quinn's seemed to sober up slightly.

"Well, we're in the fashion business, so whoever we adopt will be a sort of walking Adventism for us, we always try to show off and expand our range after all!" The woman trilled.

"But, I'm not like most people," she swished her tail to accentuate the point.

The man met her eyes through the mirror.

"Well, on the side we specialise in creating clothes suitable for people like you, for instance…" there was more bag rummaging, "Let me try this on you." Something was slipped over her head and then pulled over her hair.

"See, no one would be able to discover you had ears now!"

Bianca looked, and true, if she hadn't known she had ears, she wouldn't have guessed that they lay hidden under the black headband.

"What about my tail?" she asked.

"Well we have a contraption for that too, but not with us. Only your back is a problem with this dress now."

Bianca turned around, and sure enough, between her shoulder blades down until the back of the dress, her leopard spotted back showed clearly.

"Otherwise, we have one ten year old son, no pets, and will want you to wear some of our pieces when you can, what do you say?"

Bianca considered. She didn't really mind where she went, and these people seemed nice, if a tad excitable, and she had to admit…she _liked_ wearing a dress She just wouldn't tell anyone, ever.

"Okay, that sounds nice." She turned and smiled at them, and the woman swiftly hugged her tight enough to leave a mark, but she put up with it.

"Oh this is going to be simply _wonderful_!" The woman exclaimed, and the man chortled.

Bianca didn't know if 'wonderful' quite explained it, but it _was_ another adventure, guess she'd just have to wing it and see…it was just a shame, like Kuro said, that she didn't have any wings. Maybe she could borrow Neon's, they'd go with the dress after all.

:: Whew! Okay, sorry that I didn't get around to putting in the new characters at all, but this chapter came out so long! I'll definitely try to put them in next time, even if it's only short. Also sorry that this took so long! I have excuses, but I'm sure you don't want to hear them and I can't be bothered to type them hehe.

:: Special thanks to avikar for inspiring me to put this up today! Glad to have you back on board! And to the creator of Chrissy/Victoria, I can't remember if I said, but the name change is fine :D.

:: Also don't be jealous if you want your characters to get swanky new outfits and stuff too, because they can, and will! The Quinn's are going to be giving mutant-clothes freebies to all the different families! So if you want anything specific do say! And I'm going to try and put up some new pictures today as well, so check them out if you want! (the link is a couple of chapters back).

Okay! I'll try and write more soon, but uni has begun again (ugh, dissertations this year…fun!) so going may be slow, but hopefully not too slow, cos I'm inspired at the mo!

Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading! Shadowtheo.


	13. Christmas Special

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination, Bianca and Neon, credit for other characters where it's due.

Okay, I know things have been exceedingly slow lately…really slow… So here's an apology/filler chapter for you all to enjoy! :) It uses all the characters, so even the new ones get a look in! Enjoy!

Maximum Fallout: Christmas Special.

"Why are there so many lights tonight? It's gonna be hard to get food." Bianca stood leaning against the hole of a window of the ruined castle they were currently inhabiting. The icy wind bit playfully at her face and ruffled through her tragically messy hair. The cold didn't bother her though, in fact she relished it.

"There's even more then last night isn't there Bianca?" Taco chipped in eagerly. The little chinchilla girl had finally started to come out of her shell over the year they had spent away from hell. Bianca turned back to her with an encouraging nod and a smile, Taco blushed and squeaked slightly in happiness. She really was too cute, Bianca was sure she'd remain sweet innocent and quiet forever.

"Hungry!" The snow leopard girl looked down at the small bundle wrapped around her waist, Ant's adorable puppy-dog eyes were staring up at her widely, reflecting the tiny lights from below in the amethyst orbs.

"I know, I know." She ruffled his over-large wolf ears affectionately.

"Yeah, not to be picky, but _when_ exactly _are_ we gonna eat?" Kuro always got grouchy when he was hungry, so therefore he was _always_ grouchy. Bianca rolled her eyes. _Why_ couldn't he be more like Jason? Jason was so dependable and calm, and always being optimistic. Lynx-boy didn't seem to understand that this was tough on _all_ of them. But then _he'd_ practically been _spoiled_ in the lab!

Hearing herself, she shook the vicious thought from her head, knowing how wrong it was. They were all in this together now-

"No really, _when_!" Even if some of them _were_ insufferable little know it all-

"B-B calm down! We know you'll find us something!" Zenia soothed the worked up thoughts she must have overheard, grabbing the older girl's hand and smiling.

Poor, poor Zenia, she was so thin! Even back in hell she'd held a bit more weight, they all had, but Zenia was determined to be one of the grown-ups, and as such donated most of her food to the ravenous Ant and Taco tag-team.

Bianca smiled apologetically and Zenia beamed in return. The two of them could read each other's moods easily even without the mind-reading powers Zenia possessed.

Zenia trotted back to where the most silent of their group, the flamingo, was sitting curled up in a corner. Bianca frowned; the kid didn't even have a name. The rest of them either remembered their original names or invented them from a list of names Kuro had found on the thin laptop he had discovered. Bianca wondered sometimes if the bird would just waste or fade away, he didn't seem to have enough left to live for to carry on nowadays.

Zenia was always telling her it was because he couldn't fly anymore, but Bianca never even saw him try anymore, maybe he'd forgotten how? Could you forget how to fly? Maybe she should ask him, or would that only make him break down completely like she'd seen so many other failed experiments do.

Either way, Zenia was cuddling up close to him for warmth, talking at him about how soon it would be summer time again. Bianca was loath for that day…she'd spent all of this summer loosing hair.

Jason moved from his position of watching over the flamingo to come towards her. Bianca instantly smiled. Jason was such a nice guy, even after everything.

"We really should find some food, I don't know how much longer _he_ can last…" Jason was always worried about everyone, that's why he needed Bianca to worry about him! He was the one who had first discovered the flamingo in the lab, and so seemed to spend extra time worrying about the bird-boy.

"You're right, we could all use a really good meal. Kuro! Do you want to stop moping and find out why there are so many lights today?" The lynx murmured moodily, but seemed overall happy to be using his laptop again.

There were a few minutes of almost deranged fast clicking.

"Aha! Today is December 25th! Apparently, it's some big celebration called Christmas…" Jason, Taco and even Zenia perked up, although Zenia's expression swiftly turned hateful, she must have been remembering her time before the lab.

"Its Christmas!" Taco squealed in excitement. "We'll have _loads_ of food then!"

"I'd forgotten about Christmas! No wonder there are so many lights!" Jason exclaimed jovially.

"I…don't get it." Bianca announced, holding Ant tighter as he jumped at all the excitement.

"Well, it's this big festival celebrating this religious birth millions of years ago-!" Jason begun, before seeing her non-plussed face.

"Well never mind, the point is, we'll be able to get loads of food from that village down there, because it looks like their having a big Christmas party, and no one will notice us sneak in and get some food!"

"I'm not sure…"

"Oh, oh! But if it's a _Christmas_ party then I wanna go too! I haven't seen one since, since…" Taco trailed off miserably. Apparently this whole 'Christmas' thing was very nostalgic for people. Even Jason's smile had dropped a bit.

"Hungryyy… Can we eat noooow?" Ant complained, adorably in Bianca's opinion.

"But if there's loads of people-"

"_Trust_ me, they wont notice, not tonight." Well, she _did_ trust him.

"I'm going too!" Zenia called fiercely from the corner, there was a determination in her eyes that Bianca wouldn't fight. Even more surprisingly, flamingo had looked up and was watching in slight interest.

"We'll I'm not going to sit here on my own." Kuro announced, even slightly merrily. Bianca sighed, finding herself cornered for the first of many times to come.

"Fine, we'll all go, but stick together okay! And be on guard."

Turned out, as soon as they entered the village, none of them were on guard, they were too busy being mesmerised, trying to avoid all the _extremely_ happy people from noticing their various non-human appendages, and stuffing their faces with the food that was pretty much _thrown_ at them by old ladies standing behind food stalls. They would all say the same sort of thing.

"My! You children seem simply starved! Here, have some food, think nothing of it!" and then as they were scurrying away with buns or meat or cakes "and a very merry Christmas to you!"

To which, at least Jason, always managed to shout the same back.

"I swear this is the best idea we've ever had!" Kuro exclaimed with his mouth full of chicken.

Bianca allowed him a smirk before looking around her little group of mutants, currently crowded around a large group of little colourful lights that were emitting pleasant warmth.

Taco had managed to find some of her signature food, and was currently attempting to eat the whole plate of them at once, or so it seemed. She appeared completely unaware of the stares her scoffing was attracting, but the sight made Bianca smile, it was rare they had this amount of food, especially that seemed to have everyone's favourites in one place.

Ant was happily eating a large pile of chips and some sort of orange beans; the older girl only wished the kid liked eating meat so she could get some _real_ food into him. Sometimes she didn't know how the vegetable eating people survived.

Zenia was licking merrily on a steak, now _that_ was the sort of eating behaviour she approved of, she thought, ripping some kind of delicious meat from in-between some tasteless bread.

Jason was also munching away on several green vegetables, as well as some cake, which she had to admit _was_ good. The faces around her almost seemed to gain colour with each swallow, this really _had_ been a great idea, of Jason and Taco's anyway.

Flamingo was munching on some rather delicious smelling fishy-thing, she thought she'd heard the lady say 'prawns', but wasn't sure. The ruffled-haired boy looked up at her gaze, and caught her off guard by smiling. She couldn't remember having ever seen him smile at her, but smiled back quickly so as to encourage the behaviour.

As he looked back at the food, the movement of his hair caught in the light, for a moment she thought she was hallucinating again as rainbow colours glowed in bits of his hair for a moment.

"Wow!" The assembled mutants looked up. "Look at his hair when it moves!"

Several pairs of eyes swung over to the slightly scared looking bird. Zenia leant forwards swiftly and batted at some of his hair, causing it to swish and catch the lights again.

"Oooh pretty!" Exclaimed Taco, mesmerised. Within seconds Kuro had his laptop out and was typing furiously again.

"What are you doing?" Jason queried, from where he had moved to stop the flamingo bolting at the added attention.

"Neon! That's what we should call him! It means, ahem, 'extremely bright or vivid, flor-es-cant.' What do you think?" He asked eagerly, and Bianca saw honest excitement glinting in his electric-blue eyes.

"Well?" Jason prompted, shaking the slightly stunned flamingo. The boy blushed a little, and Bianca saw his wings trying to flap slightly under his clothes.

"I like it." She had to lean to catch the words, even with her hearing, they were so softly spoken, and there was a happy smile playing on his face.

"Neon! Hello!" Zenia called merrily, causing the flamingo to smile back shyly.

"Hi." Bianca was beaming, it was the most alive she'd seen this kid since they escaped, happiness seemed to swamp her for a minute…until some previously untouched switch flipped in Taco.

"Oh my God that name _so_ suits you!" She leapt us to speak directly to the bemused newly named Neon. "Your hair totally is like all that stuff Kuro said, and its kinda glowy too and do you like tacos cos I really _really_ love tacos and I'll share them with you-!" Bianca's face fell, as did Jason's, Ant looked plain confused and Kuro was laughing in shock.

This seemed the moment that Zenia flipped a switch on her own, her face developed a strange, strained and annoyed look.

"When did you start talking so much?" Zenia almost whined.

"Ah lighten up Zen! Anyway like I was saying-"

"Bianca? Why is everyone being so weird?" Ant asked, childlike curiosity in his eyes.

Kuro burst into laughter. Jason and Bianca shared a slightly incredulous look.

"Think maybe some of that cake had alcohol in it?" It was only recently that the two of them had _accidently_ had their first run in with the substance when testing to see if they would be able to bring it back to the rest of their family. The answer had definitely been no.

They burst into laughter at the thought.

Surely enough, the next day things were back to a more nervous, reclusive state for everyone. But they were getting better, and for a brief moment Bianca had seen what they could become, how relaxed and happy and comfortable they could all be… And just how wrong she'd been about their personalities up until now.

_::Fallout::_

"Why is it so quiet tonight?"

"Because it's _that_ night again, the one where were not remembered."

"Oh, _that_ night, the night where the rest of the world is celebrating and nobody sets us free."

"Yes, that one twin."

"Mmm, so glad its come again." The twins tightened their grip on each other's hands. Ash squeezed the cold hand, relishing that she at least got to share a cage with Alyssa, even if it was in this hell.

Between them, Zack started squirming.

"Zack's having nightmares again."

"Zack's always having nightmares, Ash, not like us."

"We always have them too Alyssa, we just don't have any good dreams any more to tell the difference."

"Ash, Ash. Such a cynic, ha ha." The small chuckle made Ash smile for the first time in weeks, the movement stretched awkwardly over her painful mouth, the scars from the operation to enlarge her fangs tightening awkwardly.

"Me the cynic? You're the one who walks through people's shadows Alyssa."

"That doesn't make me a cynic-" Alyssa begun.

"Just a stalker." Ash finished, and the two shared feral grins. They were disturbed by their little brother flinching and winning in distress.

"Shush now, we're all here." Alyssa soothed, temporarily detaching from Ash to wrap her arms around their small brother.

Ash watched for a moment, before switching her gaze to the narrow strip of a window near the top of the wall in their lab room. Her gasp attracted Alyssa's attention.

"Twin, look!" Alyssa followed her gaze to the pure white flakes that were drifting in and out of sight in the pitch-blackness.

"White stuff!"

"Lots of white stuff!"

"What is it?"

"I don't know."

"Neither, but somehow, it seems special." Deep within herself, Ash could feel something. Some emotion that she couldn't define building up within her at the sight of the soft white flakes.

The feeling was so primal she couldn't stand to contain it, her lupine genes were pulsing faster then ever before with the desire to...what? She couldn't say. To scream? Cry? Ash opened her mouth to share her thoughts, but her instinct took her breath away.

A single note rose up from her throat, wobbly and harsh at first, but getting clearer.

Next to her Alyssa gasped, but Ash had her eyes tight shut so couldn't see her expression.

It was the strangest sound she'd ever heard, and made. But somehow felt familiar, and perfect. The song welled up inside her, and she dropped back her ears and let it take over.

Seamless notes begun echoing through the room, one shifting into another in perfect harmony, and Ash suddenly realised she was singing.

But she was singing as a wolf, a wolf's song, imprinted into her genetic code like a stamp, a song she'd never had to learn.

A weight seemed to be falling off her shoulders, and she realised that she couldn't define the emotion, because the song managed to entwine everything she'd ever felt, love and pain and sorrow. 'If this is what its what its like to feel, then I'll howl forever.'

"That's beautiful Ash." Alyssa murmured, just audible over the low notes, and between them Ash felt Zack stop stirring.

"Sing like that next year as well, and even though no one will remember us, we'll always remember everything, all the pain, and all the torture, but just how much I love you as well." Alyssa's voice cracked as Ash's rose in volume.

'For you I'll sing forever.' She thought, and somehow she knew Alyssa would understand what her howls were saying.

Gradually, as one, one voice talking, and one wolf voice singing, they remembered it all, everything that had happened to them, no matter how terrible, and everything they feared and hoped could still come to pass. They cried and laughed, caught up in the harmony, and the memories.

'Every year we'll sing and talk, whilst for once Zack sleeps peacefully between us.' Ash thought as the wolf-song flowed from her heart.

'No matter what happens at least we'll have this. No matter what happens, we'll always have each other, every year we can sing!'

A few scant weeks later however, the family would be ripped apart by pain and hatred, and they would never sing together again.

_::Fallout::_

It was a bad day, well, a bad day by the standard of twelve years of bad days since she had come to hell. 'Hell' was mammoth laboratory that she had found herself thrown into at the tender and naive age of two, and since then, every day had been a bad one.

But some were more horrific then others.

This morning, it was Christmas again. How could she tell? Because only her two most regular torturers were present, and in extra bad moods. In past years, this day had sometimes been a less-bad day. The lab was quiet, no new experiments were brought in, and few experiments took place, so the weaker-less tolerant subjects for _once_ had _shut up_ and stopped screaming and crying for their mummies.

Victoria scowled to herself as she kicked the cage door of her crate. It wasn't that she _hated_ the other experiments, but she couldn't stand the wining of the human babies they brought in. Ria knew that when she was brought in, she had cried too, but it had soon stopped. She had forced herself to not feel things like that, to push the pain deep into some semi secluded pit of nightmares and rage. Frustration that nowadays sometimes threatened to consume her in this crate she couldn't turn round in.

But today the frustration was hatred, towards her captors. This morning she had woken up, only to see, smell and feel the small kitten in the cage next to her, dead.

It had only been brought in one day ago.

The small white body was still lying cold and stiff where the experimenters had thrown it in yesterday after toying with it. Ria didn't know or care what they'd done, and in some ways, better to be dead in here then alive, at least you couldn't feel vivisection if you were gone. But she _did _care that they had done anything at all. A defenceless kitten. How much lower would they sink. And had she been any different back then? A chubby little toddler with a stubby little tiger cub tail and folded over nubs of ears. But at least she _could_ scream and cry, that kitten didn't even have a voice.

The animals had always affected her worse then the human experiments.

"How are you this morning 51m2700?" Ria didn't need to look up at him for the stench of antiseptic to know it was a whitecoat. Just under the chemical's she could tell that both A1 and A2 were here, as she called them. They gave her numbers, why shouldn't she? She had been here so long she couldn't remember if she had been given the name Victoria or made it up for herself.

"Well I'm just peachy, and yourself?" the words spat off her tongue without thought, man was she getting good at comebacks, ha!

"I see our latest treatment for your attitude disorder was also a failure."

"Oh _that_ treatment, common, did you guys _really_ think that shoving me in an _even smaller_ pitch black cage would make me shut up? It just got stored like pent up energy! Speaking of, fancy letting me out for a walk or something? I've got cramp."

So she had a smart mouth she couldn't help, big deal! The scientists barely acknowledged it anymore since they worked out it only encouraged her to swear at them.

"Subject 269D01 status; deceased." Ria turned as much as she could to see A1 holding the dead kitten by its stiff scruff, talking into a Dictaphone as carelessly as if contemplating a squashed bug.

A low growl begun in her throat, and prickling that she had repressed for years begun behind her eyes at its lifeless body. The tiny form was still chubby, with its head madly out of proportion to its body, it couldn't have been six weeks old.

"Just as we suspected, replacement being implemented, testing will begin in two hours." And from a case he was carrying, another small, tiny chubby wriggling body was pulled out.

Ria's eyes widened in horror. This was what it was like, one pitiful mewing creature replacing another without care. The kitten was thrown in the tiny cage and sprawled helplessly, unable to control its legs on the slippery surface. The scientists laughed.

"You cruel _bastards_! Do you get off on other creatures pain! How are you even human you worthless jerks!" A1 turned to shout back at her scream, but Ria was too quick. Years of watching other animals suffer her fate had taken its tole.

They never had worked out she could reach through the bars. Anger flared within her, pushing claws through her morphing hands as she pounced for the grate.

Forcing her arm through the gaps up to the elbow, her striped-morphed tiger paw slashed through the wretched white lab coat and into the soft flesh of A1.

If the blood felt good, it was nothing compared to the anguished scream. It was worth A2's savage kick that cracked her wrist from where her claws clung to the bone.

"Yeah you better run bastards!" She catcalled after the sprinting scientists, hearing their cries of 'thicker bars' and 'punishment'.

Even through all her bras attitude, she would never get used to the experiments, or just the all-out eraser beatings. The tiger-girl glanced over at the little black and white kitten, it was shivering, too scared to mew.

"Panda-kitten, we have _got_ to get out of this place." Her gaze scanned from the terrified kitten to the corridor outside her cage, pale hazel-purple eyes caught on something shiny.

The cage bars crashed against her as she sprang forward to get a closer look. The tiniest gold key lay on the ground, surrounded by a pen, tissue and some fabric scraps, the remains of the pocket that must have ripped off when she tore the coat.

"Funny thing, fate, Panda-kitten." Ria smirked as her hand once again reached out of the cage, to close around freedom.

_::Fallout::_

The city really _was_ beautiful. Shayne had had no idea just how beautiful a city could be, at least from up here.

One hundred miles up and the lights glistened and twinkled gorgeously. Of course it being Christmas always helped. At first when she had realised it was the holiday she was shocked, she'd been out of the lab less then a year and it was already one of her used-to-be least favourite holidays. Because _they_ had always been there, her homely-torturers.

No! She wouldn't think about _them_ anymore, they were probably dead now anyway, she hoped, prayed. She shook herself for the morbid thoughts and dropped a few feet slightly.

The wind nudged her primary feathers, and she let herself go into a couple of free-fall rolls, the wind carrying her on its whim.

So far, this was the best Christmas of her life, spent _free, flying_, who could ask for more?

Shayne straightened out her wings to stop the freefall, twisting her body to catch the strong winds side on.

"Whoa!" Either she had over-corrected, which just _didn't_ happen, she'd waited and spent too long learning to fly to get it wrong. Therefore, the wind must be getting stronger, and fast.

Thunder boomed over and she dropped a few feet again with the shock. Gusts of rain begun lashing down on her.

"Oh dammit!" She never had flown in thunder before…but she was pretty sure it was a bad idea.

"Time to land." Shayne muttered to herself, scanning the ever-darkening ground.

Why was it so dark? A minute ago many miny lights had guided her, now there was almost nothing below her, although the ground almost looked like it was moving…

"Hang on, that can't be good!" Backpedalling was difficult in the strong winds and rain lashing at her, but her powerful wings could manage. That _wasn't_ the ground, it was water…a lot of water…like, an _ocean_ of water.

"Oh dammit!" Falling in the ocean was _not_ an option. Sure enough when she forced her body round and hovered in place, aided by the wind, she saw the twinkling lights sprawled out behind her.

"Well…isn't this gonna be fun…" Landing in such high winds, in the dark, trying to find an unpopulated place…ugh.

But she had to try, in these types of winds her wings could take some bad damage, damage she couldn't afford.

Folding in her wings slightly, she begun dropping slowly, but she had to flap _hard_ to go forwards, back towards the city.

The wind buffeted her descent but slowly and surely she was making progress. Even though her wings and clothes were getting heavy and waterlogged, her streaked hair falling into her crimson eyes.

In some ways, getting _to_ the city was the easy bit.

Once she had descended below the city's tallest buildings, the storm pulsed through the corridors of skyscrapers and flats, pummelling her through the heights of the metropolis.

The hawk-girl's muscles burned from the effort of the sudden swerves against the wind. The distance between her turns and the corners of the buildings was getting closer. Shayne panted as she shot down another street, the blood was starting to build in her head at all the times she had spun in the air. But there was no time to catch her breath.

The wind speed was kicking up, and her added water weight made her less agile. She was nearly at a height where she could even drop her wings and land without damage, but at the uncontrollable speed she was going it would still end badly.

'I've really got to slow down!' The hawk yelled to herself, her panic rising. The wind swung her around a corner, her wing tip brushed the edge of the building.

"Not good, not good not _good_!" Thankfully the screaming wind masked the panicked yell. "Focus, Shayne, focus!" The next corner was approaching her as a blinding flash lit the sky. Temporarily star-struck she turned to look up at the heavens, and the wind seized her unbalanced form.

Pain thrashed through her left wing as the wind threw her against the corner of a building, howling over her scream. Without the use of her wing she careered without control towards the ground, instinctively tucking in her other wing to avoid hitting it too.

The ground rushed up too meet her, but instead of the pain she was expecting. A muffled crunching engulfed her, but the landing was fairly soft.

Adrenalin masking her pain temporarily, she sat up dazedly.

"Oh great…" Around her she saw nothing but "…garbage, ugh." Ignoring the disgust she turned to examine her left wing. It wasn't good.

It was hanging at an odd angle, definitely broken. Shayne sighed at the sight, still too giddy to take it seriously.

"Great, another Christmas on the ground. Guess I wont be leaving _this_ place for a while."

::Okay! So there you go, now, I wont rabbit on, I will update when I can, but this is my last year of university, and I HAVE to pass, and ergo put work (shudder) first T.T *sob*. Anywho, a quick guide for this chapter, which took place chronologically:

The herd: One year post their escape from the lab, so ages are (roughly) Bianca, Jason, Kuro – 12, Neon – 16, Zenia – 9, Taco – 8 and Ant – 3.

Ash and family: A few weeks before Ash escapes ('friad I don't know the exact age, but lets say she's about 11/12? (feel free to correct me Sanchild!))

Chrissy – 14, just as she escapes, oh and, Jenfan? You can decide whether or not you still want her to have the panda-kitten with her (I only call it 'Panda-kitten/cat hesitantly, and cos that's what I call anything that's black and white spots).

Shayne – 16/17 a year/most of a year after she's escaped, and the city she crashes in is the one the herd are now in, she's been stuck there whilst her wing heals, and then because its so hard to get out.

Okay! As always, any questions/corrections/ideas are very welcome. Oh and for the two new characters (especially) please let me know if you think they aren't portrayed right, I try, but I may well have misinterpreted them. Oh and the characters of the rest of the herd (Ash included) are quite a lot different here because they were all in very different situations from present time, a lot younger, or still trying to adjust, but I hope that allows for more insight into them rather then putting you off.

I didn't want this note to be long, but it happened! Will update when possible, and I have decided that when I post a new chap I will also post pics of what the characters are wearing in that chapter to add to the story (so like school uniform/home clothes etc.)

Thanks for reading, Merry Xmas! Shadowtheo. Xx


	14. Chapter 14

If any of you are still reading this, you deserve a medal.

I can only apologise so much for the wait, and try not to let it happen again, although I can't promise much with my brain being so demented :/

I hope you can postpone your rage to enjoy this extra-long chappie! (If any of you want, feel free to berate me afterwards ;P)

I'm not sure how good some of the characters are in this…but I tried

Please enjoy, and once again sorry!

Maximum Fallout: 13

Ash didn't like the car journey, and by the time the modest car had pulled up to the three-story house and they had pilled into it, she was about ready to tear something into a bloody pulp.

Her new adoptive parents seemed to sense this and were giving her a wide berth. The concerned looks on their faces were just making her skin prickle and hair stand up all the more.

"I'll show you to your room, we have a lot to do tomorrow so you should try to get some sleep." The adoptive woman suggested, and begun to lead the way.

The smell got stronger throughout the house, Ash was certain now, even though she couldn't quite believe it.

The wolf girl was led along to a fairly large and ridiculously decorated bedroom, and there, sitting on the bed, was the hawk-boy that she'd smelt.

Ash tensed slightly, unsure where they stood with one another nowadays, in this new and strange environment.

Once again the woman seemed to sense the tension and hesitated in her introduction.

The winged boy stood from the bed with a confident and relaxed movement.

"Don't worry Mrs. M, I'll help her settle in." Mrs. M, or woman, or adopt-a-mum, Ash really couldn't be bothered with her name, left with a nervous smile. Ash's tension increased as she stepped into the room, there was no need to help her settle in, she didn't have anything _to_ settle in.

Once she was far enough from the door, Andrew swept in and closed it softly.

"Wow Ash, never thought I'd see you again, especially not here."

His tone was slightly sarcastic, and he stood still facing the door. Ash swept her gaze over him, intent as a hunter. He looked identical to how he had back then, except he had grown and filled out, Ash was suddenly aware of how much taller then her he was, and his voice did nothing to put her at ease.

Slowly he turned from the door, something eager and curious but nasty filling his expression as he looked at her from across the room.

"Especially after what happened to Alyssa," Ash's whole body tensed for a fight, her ears swinging to point directly forwards, catching every word. Andrew paused for a second or two, eyeing her reaction with amusement that made her skin crawl, a barely audible warning growl escaped her.

"And I hear Zack's out for your blood too, that must really hurt! Your _own little broth_-" Before he could finish Ash had leapt forwards, her eyes stung but she didn't care. In one second she was a large black-brown wolf, her whole body a snarl as she crashed into Andrew with the full force of ninety pounds at fifty-seven miles per hour.

The sheer size and strength of her wolf form pinned the hawk-boy to the floor. There was a small scream from downstairs and the sound of voices, but Ash wasn't paying attention to it, her full fury was directed at the person she used to see as her brother, who was laughing.

"_Shut UP_!" she dug her claws into his shoulders, easily shredding the shirt he wore and cutting into the flesh underneath.

"Don't you _dare_ talk to me about that! Don't you _dare_ mention them again! I'll _kill_ you I _swear_ it!" She wasn't lying, and her fury only increased as he continued to laugh, mocking her. A snarl grew from deep inside her as she dug her claws in further, and finally he winced slightly, although he still didn't stop smiling.

"If you ever mention them again, and if you _ever_ talk about them to my family, you'll be dead before the sentence is over." He eyed her appraisingly, her voice left no question to whether her claim was true or not.

"I'll tell them when I'm ready or when I have no other choice, but _not_ by _you_!" She growled. Steps on the stairs and worried voices were coming along the corridor.

But the figure beneath her smirked coldly, not phased by having a growling adult female wolf on top of him.

"Don't tell your _family_? What family! The only family you have is _dead_ or calling out for your _blood_!"

"Shut up!" Ash leapt off him, making sure to drag her claws as she swung around, transforming back into a girl. She caught her reflection in the large mirror, and saw that her eyes were blood red. She swung back to him, drawing herself up.

"The herd is my family now. Not you, you've changed and you're not my brother anymore, so don't pretend to be! Don't you dare talk to me about my past! Don't even come _near_ me! You don't even know how much you've hurt me here, I may have done terrible things, _I_ _know_ everything's my fault, I don't need _you_ to tell me that! I'm nearly sixteen Andrew, I've grown up, I can take care of myself, and I can make my own choices, the herd is my family and I want to stay with them! I want to stay with Ant! I want to stay with Bianca and the others! They've been more of a family to me in this past week then you ever were in all those years!"

The door burst open, there were screams from the mother, shouts from the father, but Ash wasn't listening. She turned and faced the conveniently open window.

"I'll be back." With that and the aggrieved squawking of confused parents behind her, she ran and jumped, turning into a hawk just as she passed through the window, snapping her wings open and letting the breeze carry her where it wanted.

Later, by the time the stars were out and she'd settled on a tall tree on a cliff top overlooking the heaving ocean, she allowed herself to think.

That was the first time she'd managed to talk human in her wolf form, it was also the first time her eyes had ever turned red. As they'd stopped stinging now, she assumed that they'd turned back to normal as she calmed down.

What was wrong with her?

_::Fallout::_

There was a weight on her chest raising her from sleep, a warm, moving, _purring_ weight.

"Ah!" Zenia bolted upright in bed, and found herself face to face with the largest, fluffiest and _whitest_ cat she'd ever seen.

The giant purring monstrosity stayed clung to her chest and gave her a disturbingly disapproving meow, it's squashed face staring up at her with Amber eyes.

"Zenia _darling_! What is all this racket?" Mr and Mrs Moore came dashing into the room, already dressed in their finest glad rags for the day. Before Zenia could explain the monster-cat wake up the heavy velvet curtains were ripped from the giant windows and blinding light poured in, reminding her of the finery she had been thrown into the night before.

The bed had been described to her as a 'four-poster', Zenia didn't really take it in, all she knew was that it was bloody big. The room had cream walls with a deep crimson skirting that seemed to be the colour scheme. Every inch of the furniture seemed to be shiny with varnish and elaborately sculpted.

"Ah, I see you've met Lord Byron!" Alfred chuckled in his good-natured way. Zenia blanched.

"_Lord_ Byron?"

"Yes, _Lord_ Byron."

"The cat's a Lord?"

"Shush! He might hear you! Of course he's a Lord, can't you see by his regal bearing?"

Zenia tried to compose her appalled face into acceptance. So she was living with crazy-rich cat-obsessed people. No big deal, right? After all, being a member of the feline family herself, she should be well treated here.

"Now we've got a lot to do today, so hurry and get dressed! I've laid out a dress for you." Zenia looked over to the light-surrounded-mirror-table as she called it, to see frilly white monstrosity innocently lying on the poufy stool.

"A _what_?"

"A dress dear! It's perfect for today's occasions, simple but elegant, classy but playful, just what you need for a haircut."

"_A what_!"

"Well how long since you last cut your hair? And what style did you go for? It's grown out terribly!"

"Bianca whacked some of it off with the gardening shears we found."

"She _what_!" Zenia took a moment to savour the pure horror on her new mother's face.

"If you think mine's bad, you should have seen Neon's, he wouldn't be seen without a hat for a week! Taco's came out okay though." She recollected thoughtfully. Mrs Moore's face turned from pale to gray. Albert managed to make a swifter recovery.

"Get dressed Zenia, now come along dear, just think of the manicure…" He led his terrorized wife away coaxingly, shutting the door behind him.

An amused purring caught her attention, and she could have sworn that under all that fluff _Lord_ Byron was smirking.

"Maybe I should wear the dress just so the don't chuck me out." The low purring from behind her was her only reply.

_::Fallout::_

Neon had swiftly realised that the herd was the best family known to man, and that the girls in the herd were extraordinary compared to normal ones.

Throughout last night and this morning, and even now as they walked to the school uniform shop, he could barely understand what they were saying.

They seemed incapable of talking or looking at him without giggling, and when they managed not to giggle they talked so fast he couldn't catch the words anyway.

His only solace was the giant furry monstrosity of a dog tat walked along beside him. The family had been quite happy to let Neon walk the large canine, and Maximum seemed to enjoy his company.

Neon reminded himself to ask Ant to introduce him to Max officially some time, if that's what dogs did. He didn't really understand dogs, it had taken him a while to get used to the cats of the herd too. He didn't know quite what to make of Ash, part bird, part dog, but they seemed to have an understanding.

Humans, he didn't like at all. But he'd have to try for as long as they were stuck in this city, stuck in a massive school full of masses of them. He shuddered a little, and the massive dog beside him a nervous little under-growl.

"We're here kids!"

"Woo!"

"Another school year, great."

"I'd like it better without the uniform."

"I'd like it better without school at all!" More giggling ensued. Neon forced himself to relax before entering the uniform shop, he'd have to try and get used to the large amounts of people he was going to encounter, but he knew he never would.

Maybe he could just pretend he was invisible, but it had never worked for him before, and he doubt it would now.

"I'll stay out here with Max, you go in and get your uniform, okay?" No, not okay, but what choice did he have?

With the calm energy of Max gone however, everything got a little worse.

The shop was dark and enclosed, full of racks of clothes and teeming with excitable children. He hated being inside, it felt so wrong, not to feel the wind or have natural light. Someone bumped into him causing him to jump into somebody else.

"Hey watch it!" Neon staggered away disorientated, staring into the too-dark corners. He couldn't see where his supposed family had gone, nobody he knew was here and the further he stumbled backwards the less he could see the exit. The walls begun to close in on him as his breathing sped up. A tall man with glasses brushed past him and he cowered as the man morphed into a whitecoat, the other people suddenly becoming feral and lupine.

Even as he was seeing these things he knew they weren't, couldn't be happening, but he was too far-gone. The panic he was reaching he hadn't felt in years.

He hadn't been around this many people in years, and then the herd had always been with him.

Jason and Zenia had always been there. Their faces swam across his darkening vision of white walls and sterilization.

"Help me, please help me." Breathlessly he pleaded the ghostly images, but they swam away before his eyes, back into a horrible eraser looming over him, teeth grinning with feral pleasure. Weakly his knees dropped to the floor as he tried to skitter away, tried to fly but the damn new clothes he was wearing didn't have slits cut in them, the back bars of his cage dug into his back.

"Hey! Hey, hey, you all right there? Neon started as the Eraser spoke with the voice of a teenage girl. He forced himself to blink his vision clear, the human-wolf morphed back into reality.

The girl looked around Bianca's age and was the same sort of height, she had crimson eyes that matched the red streaks in her otherwise black hair.

"You okay?" She repeated, concern in her voice. Neon glanced behind her to make sure there weren't any erasers ready to pounce at him and tear him to pieces.

"Looks like you saw a ghost or something?" He stood up shakily as she spoke, and glanced at her before looking behind himself distractedly.

"No just wolves." He muttered.

"Huh?" Her eyes were full of questions and curiosity, but underneath was a strange calculating look.

"There you are Neon! Come on we have to get clothes!" Lexie came up and grabbed his arm, the flamingo had to fight the urge to wrench his limb free, and instead let himself get dragged off by his new sister.

"This ones for the other room!" Lexie called out to some old lady who must have been the shopkeeper. The blonde shoved him through a side door into a small room with a section cut off by a curtain. Before he could get used to his surroundings the woman bustled through.

"Ah yes, now what do we need to cover up with you?" Neon gaped at her for several moments, he had never been good with coming up with lies, he wasn't really good at saying anything.

"Come on now, you can't have anything I haven't seen before! Now let me see its not ears, doesn't look like a tail, normal hands and your wearing normal shoes so I'd guess feet too… so that would typically leave wings. Am I right?"

Neon once again stared at the lady, but he couldn't feel any malevolence from her, just amusement.

"Yes that's right." He replied shyly.

"Good! Other then feet wings are by far the easiest! I'll go get you your uniform."

_::Fallout::_

"Kaylee! Wake up girl we've got to get your uniform!"

"Mmmm bed too comfy." The petite girl mumbled contently into her pillow. But the banging on the door increased so she sighed and accepted the day.

"Alright, I'm awake!" Slowly she leaned over to the window and pulled back the curtains, allowing light to spill into the room.

Her bedroom was small and stocked with several possessions of the other family members. With white walls and a light blue carpet it was tranquil and clean looking.

Taco, or Kaylee as she was known in this house, sighed happily as the sun caught her eyes. There was another knock on the door and her foster mother bustled in.

"Okay, I've brought you some clothes that I think will fit you, oh and something to hide your tail, try to find something you like and then we'll have some breakfast before we leave."

Taco nodded and eyed the clothes pile with interest, she waited till the door had closed again before diving on the pile of clothes like the unmannered animal she was. It took her a few minutes to work out how the tail-disguise worked. There were two horizontal bands designed to go around the hips and several vertical straps that could be untied, tightened and loosened that held her fluffy tail down so firmly and flatly that it was borderline uncomfortable, when she slipped on an experimental dress however, she could barely believe she had a tail.

The mirror revealed her as a slightly skinny girl wearing a striped blue dress with shockingly white hair hanging loose around her face and over her shoulders, a small pearl cross dangling from around her neck.

She stared for a few moments at herself. The image was something she wasn't used to, she hadn't seen herself in a dress since they had escaped the lab and their rudimentary white-dress-uniform. Her hips seemed only slightly bigger then usual thanks to her tail, and she looked almost unbearably _normal_ and feminine.

Taco shook herself from her image, it was too much, too soon. Grabbing her trusty yellow scrunchie, she pulled her hair away from her shoulders, leaving only a few strands around her face.

But she left on the dress, she was nothing if not adventurous, and she should at least explore her newly found ability to think of herself as a 'female mutant', as oppose to just 'mutant'.

She grabbed a short white cardigan with long sleeves and some cute flat shoes that had bows on. Somehow it had usually ended up with Kuro and Jason, as the least detectable of them, being in charge of finding clothes, and needless to say they lacked _style_.

It was a short and brusque breakfast. Taco had only briefly met the other children of the house before she had been whisked off to her bedroom. There was a 20-year-old boy, or man really. Taco had found herself staring at him for the first few minutes she was in a room with him last night, and nearly caught herself doing in again. The man was a giant! Huge and muscled and dark skinned, there was some sort of darkness in the back of his eyes that only she would have noticed. Despite that however, he had a gently and soothing voice that Taco was drawn to, but not in an eraser-like way.

She had been told that he was their first adoptee, their second had moved in with a boyfriend. Then there was a rather mean looking girl around Neon's age, a scrawny and miserable-looking boy and a bawling baby.

Taco had found herself drawn to this infant just as much as Dustin; the 20-year-old. There was something about seeing a baby crying outside of her memory of the Facility that was bizarre to the point of unreal. As if babies really cried like that when there was no reason to? She couldn't fathom what it was complaining about.

Hazel had confided to her that they didn't usually take babies, but this one was related to Renee; the mean looking girl. She had also learned that they had adopted her partly to try and draw Marvin; the skinny boy, out of his shell.

Taco had her reservations about that happening. She had felt nothing but uncomfortable around Marvin and Renee, who seemed to think she was some silly little girl, even though she'd probably been through things they wouldn't have nightmares about. If she chose to spend her time optimistic then that was her choice, after all, why should she wallow when she was experiencing what she'd dreamed of for years? Sure, things were a little awkward now, but she hoped things would sort themselves out.

Taco took a breath and steadied herself, managing to smile brightly at the skulking Marvin who was staring at her.

"Come on Kaylee, the others already have their uniforms. Oh, would you mind holding Rita for me? I've got to grab some recycling bags." Taco jumped and her arms scrambled to grab hold on the wriggling baby as it was pushed into her arms.

She looked down and realised that Rita had the largest eyes on a head she'd ever seen. She couldn't help but continue to stare at the rather heavy infant as her and Hazel left the house to walk to the shops.

_::Fallout::_

Bianca was trying so hard to be good, to be normal. But the upshot of it was that she had spent her morning sitting in a chair as someone moved around her with a pair of scissors.

Personally, she thought that it had been a miracle everyone had left with his or her fingers intact.

As it was she had managed to convince her 'mother' that she _needed_ to keep her hair that long, and as such had only received a trim to the ends and to the fringe. That had been uncomfortable enough.

Then she had had to suffer some sort of fitting of school uniform alone with some woman that knew all about them. She didn't think her tail would ever uncurl again. Or that her ears would ever prick up again.

"Oh your uniform looked superb on you! You'll be the talk of the school!" Bianca prayed with every strand of fur on her tail that she would _not_ be the talk of the school. She hadn't even looked in the mirror, it had been too much of a shock to just look down and see the regimented outfit. She was one of the crowd now.

Or had been. Now however she was changed back into _another_ new dress. This once had a selection of green leaves on it, and was just as short. It had been one thing to see herself in a dress in private. But this was out in the open. People kept staring at her.

"Mind if we run on ahead Bianca? We need to go to some model castings, you know the way home right? Or you can come if you like?" Bianca blanched at the thought, at least at the house she could hide.

"I-I'll be fine, I know the way." She only stuttered slightly before regaining the slight nonchalance that she had adopted in her voice. She looked at the door to the street with slight apprehension, seeing the moving shapes of hundreds of humans. A sharp pain in the back of her head brought her back to reality with a cry.

"Aw, _I_ want to go with _Bianca_!" She looked round, with difficulty, to see the shorter figure of Alfie tugging her long blonde hair down so that she had to bend over backwards or risk loosing it. Her ice shadow eyes met his hazel ones upside down. His eyes were wide with curiosity as she raised an eyebrow at him in warning.

"Now now, you can play with Bianca later, Alfie."

"Awww" He moaned as he let go, but continued to stare. Bianca continued to meet his gaze. He was two years older then Ant, around ten, with the same tufted hair, but styled with gel, not natural scruffiness, and sandy brown rather then blonde. He also acted about two years younger then Ant, with the personality of Kuro when he was younger.

"See you later then Bianca!" The adults called to her, leading a still staring Alfie away.

"See ya…" Bianca mumbled. Maybe she could use this opportunity to look for ways out or places where the herd could meet in secret. She could always say she got lost.

Picking up the bags of uniform she straightened and strolled from the shop. Seeing heads turn as she walked she put her shoulders back and raised her head high. So what if they stared at her? Maybe she did look like a freak in a dress, but she could still kick their butts any time she wanted.

Turning out from the shop she set off down the road in the opposite direction of the house, she would find her way back somehow.

_::Fallout::_

Kuro had spent his morning trying to think like Ant. It hadn't worked. James's dog was still staring at him as if a bit shell shocked by the time he left the house. The poor Alsatian looked as if a flying pig had just fallen through he ceiling.

The ginger tabby cat was the polar opposite, it had been stuck to him like glue ever since he had walked into the small flat.

He was now walking to the school clothes shop that was along the street.

It had been a strange evening. He didn't quite understand what there was to _do_ at a house? Or what you were meant to do at least. They had eaten, talked awkwardly, then James had turned on a television, and they hadn't talked at all. It had been a relief to go to sleep. Although he had the impression that Gene the dog had stared at him all night whilst Gemma the cat had tried to sleep on his face, purring loudly.

Still, it wasn't all bad, he thought to himself, looking around at the rather scantily clad female passersby. And at least it wasn't _too_ hot for him, although he was starting to wish he didn't have to wear his hood up.

Bianca would be going scitzo. Speaking of the devil, there was a girl standing with bags by a fence up ahead of him with long blonde hair that glinted in the sun so that it looked just like the snow leopard-girl. Kuro stare appreciatively, the girl was thin and pretty but with some _fine_, if slight, curves. The dress she was wearing was managed to somehow elongate her already long legs. He raised his eyebrows slightly as he got closer, enjoying himself quite thoroughly.

The girl was too occupied staring almost straight up at a towering skyscraper in the distance to notice him anyway. Or so he thought. As he drew nearly alongside her she swished her head around so her hair nearly whipped him in the face.

Icy eyes met his electric ones.

"_Bianca_?" His face flushed red at the realisation of just whose long legs and curves his eyes had been travelling over.

"Kuro! Thank _God_ I thought I was the only one who was hot around here." Not caring to correct her on the reason for his heated face he tried to form a thought.

"How? Where? But, where's your tail!" To his surprise she rolled her eyes in annoyance.

The people I'm with have this thing that hides tails, but it's _so_ uncomfortable you'd think they'd just chopped it off! My poor poor tail is flattened against my waist… Does it make my bum look big?" Kuro could hear the mocking tone in her voice but hastily spluttered a negative at her, eyes glued to her face lest they glanced down to look at just how _un_ fat she was looking.

Bianca cast him a weird glance and muttered something about heatstroke before turning around again.

"What are you looking at?" Thankfully his voice was back to normal now, his stomach seemed to have settled back into place as well.

"That building." She raised an arm to point as he moved to stand beside her and followed her gaze to the tall building. "I'm wondering if it's tall enough to get us from the ocean if Neon and Ash glided us there…We'd have to get on top without being noticed of course, but I think its doable."

"Crikey, one night hear and you've already planned an escape route. Must be bad."

"It doesn't hurt to be prepared, besides, the longer were here the harder it will be to get out." Kuro shook his head.

"Didn't you like the family that took you at all?"

"The house was too dingy," She replied vaguely, leaning to the right slightly to get a better view.

"And the people?"

"They made me wear a dress." Kuro couldn't help himself.

"Well, you don't hear me complaining." She shot him a half annoyed, half amused look.

"There's nothing we have in common, they kept talking about '_runways_' and stuff and there was nothing to do, I couldn't go for a run or anything! Apparently it was too 'dark outside', kuh!" Her noise of disgust was mild however. Kuro imagined she had had a worse night then she had let on, but he wasn't about to bring it up.

"Yeah, I had that problem, just what are we meant to _do_? What did you do all evening?"

"Mapped out the house and made a preliminary search for escape routes, places to hide and weak points in the house's interior. Oh, and I tested how much noise would wake the adopt-a-family, apparently it would take a small hurricane to do it. Even after I had pushed over the bookcase onto the table they took so long scrabbling around for a torch that I got back to the bedroom, pretended to wake up and still beat them to the door and then back to the room."

Kuro stared incredulously. Typical Bianca. He couldn't help pitying the poor family though. How many more household mishaps would it take before the girl was satisfied she could make it to all her escape routes in case of a break in?

"B, has anyone ever told you you're obsessive?"

"Am not!"

"Sure you are." He replied easily. It wasn't like she could help it, that was what she'd been almost hard-wired to do in the lab.

He turned and begun walking again, picking up some of the bags, Bianca falling into step beside him.

"Maybe you should just try and relax for a bit. We have to go to school tomorrow after all."

"Great." He rolled his eyes, she _was_ a bit of a killjoy. Not that he would admit it, but he had been thinking of school through the night. Thinking how maybe it wouldn't be too bad. Maybe they could learn some interesting stuff. Maybe he'd find some people to talk to who were as smart as he was.

They walked in silence for a while, Kuro noticed that they were drawing a few looks as they passed people their own age. He surreptitiously glanced over at Bianca, who seemed to be dealing with the looks by walking taller.

"You know…" She glanced over at him, her eyes suspicious from the laughter barely contained in his voice. "I reckon if we held hands people would think we're a couple." It took a few seconds of his glee for her face to turn from embarrassed shock to embarrassed outrage.

"No they would not!"

"Aw, but you look so _normal_ in those fancy pants clothes! Like a real girl!" It was worth the outrage on her face to see her vanity flushing her face and the words 'fancy-pants', he knew she'd liked the dress.

"Shut up I didn't pick them! Just because we're in a normal city doesn't mean _we're_ normal! Forget it, you can go to the stupid shop by yourself!" She angrily snatched the bags from his hand and stalked off, breaking into a slight run as he failed to control his laughter any more.

_::Fallout::_

Jason had left his new 'mom' at the rescue centre. She had made good on only one of her promises to him. He had a room to stay in. But she couldn't cook worth a damn. She had managed _somehow_ to burn porridge, claiming that as she never ate it, she didn't know when it was done.

Eventually she'd provided him with some chocolate cereal and tea before giving Lika and Lion their food and showing him around the rescue centre.

There she'd been a bit more impressive, and he had seen her mothering instinct when someone brought in some baby hedgehogs. He supposed he'd just have to learn how to cook properly. Who knew, maybe it would help him prepare for potentially living a normal life with his parents?

Smiling to himself he glanced ahead of him to where he could see the clothes shop.

"Jason!" Jason looked around, standing by a tree next to him was Ash, nearly camouflaged by the branches.

"Heya Ash, what are you doing there?" He ducked under the leaves to join her, she had the expression of utmost relief on her face. "Where are your family?"

"I told them I'd come alone." She muttered evasively. "When I got here Neon came out looking like he'd had a heart attack…" She glanced apprehensively at the door. "But before I could speak to him all those girls surrounded him and dragged him away with them and their parents and the dog."

"Well, no offense to Neon, but I think you're made of stronger stuff." Ash didn't seem to hear.

"And then Taco came by with a woman and a baby and it was crying. And then later Kuro came and I think he might have seen me waving but then some girl started talking to him and he went in with her." He realised he'd never heard the usually quiet girl talk this much.

"Ash, are you afraid to go in?" She shot him a slightly incredulous look.

"Aren't _you_?"

"Not really." Now she was staring at him like he was an alien.

They stared at each other for a while before their gazes turned slowly back to the door across the street.

"Um, what are you two doing?" They jumped in unison and turned to see Jessie's head poking from under the branches to look at them.

_::Fallout::_

Jessica had thought she had heard familiar voices. Upon investigation she saw Jason and Ash lurking suspiciously, concealed by the branches. Ash had a hat pulled over her ears, and was wearing a long shirt, Jess suspected that her tail was hidden by the tail-concealing-contraption that had been given to each of the families by her dad. Jason was looking pretty normal, wearing a t-shirt and trousers, although she could see a short pole sticking out of his back trouser pocket.

"Are you both ok?" Ash looked away as if too stressed to answer the question.

"Just about to go in, how about you?" Jason replied. The hawk girl ducked under the leaves, a soft smile playing on her lips. She had stayed up for most of the night talking to her dad. They had lot to catch up on. She hadn't been able to tell him everything about what had happened to her at the lab she had so recently escaped. She wasn't sure that she'd ever be able to anyone everything that had happened to her.

None the less, sitting with her dad had felt like home, something she hadn't felt for so long she'd nearly forgotten it.

Something of her thoughts must have told on her face, Jason was smiling at her knowingly.

"You're so peaceful now, you were a wreck when we got out." At her questioning look he elaborated. "I can read emotions." Well, that would explain it.

"It's nice to be home." she said simply, slightly uncomfortable with the idea of being read like a book. Jason looked off, looking slightly wistful, Ash made a noise that sounded slightly like a snort. Well she could laugh if she wanted. But at least Jessie had helped the herd out now, she'd started to repay the favour they gave her.

"Well, anyway, I'd better go and get my uniform, see you guys later." She straightened herself after ducking from under the tree and made sure to walk tall and straight into the shop. She wasn't afraid of a few humans grouped together. She couldn't understand how paranoid of average people the herd was after being in that hellhole. She wasn't about to spend her time with the prickly wolf girl either when she was being so antisocial. Jason was all right, but she had only known them for a couple of days.

Maybe it was because they all seemed so close, or didn't have any families and were uncomfortable with her having one, but there was a slight hesitation between her and the other mutants.

And despite herself, despite being home for the first time in years, she couldn't help wondering what their lives were like, and what it would be like to travel with them.

_::Fallout::_

"Zenia!" Ant watched as the puma girl turned around at her name, her parents looked around too.

"Ha! Look at the little tyke go!" Ant wasn't ever quite sure what his newly adoptive father was talking about at these moments, he seemed to get excited about the slightest amount of exercise that Ant got up to. He pulled Pongo and Beethoven along with him, the Dalmatian ran gleefully whilst the St Bernard dragged his feet slightly.

Zenia was looking ruffled as he pulled up to her. Her hair was slightly shorter and its usual ragged waves were somehow sleeker. She was also wearing a simple but frilled dress.

"What are you wearing?" Zenia glowered at him, in the background he heard her parents muttering 'how uncouth!'

"Never you mind Shorty. How's it going with the rent-a-'rents?" Ant tried not to snicker too loudly at the name.

"Their nice…if a bit weird." He murmured the last part under his breath.

"I know, mine have a cat called _Lord_ Byron." Ant didn't really know what to say to this, but luckily at that point Beethoven started sniffing at Zenia curiously.

"Don't worry, he's just saying hello, you should say hello back, its only polite." Zenia raised an eyebrow, but none-the-less asked-

"How do I do that?"

"Touch noses!" Ant replied merrily. Zenia bent down and nudged the big dog's nose, promptly receiving a slobbery lick. Ant giggled at Zenia's mutter of 'ew', her rent-a-mom was grimacing in the background and mumbling something about 'public place Zenia!'

"Hey, what are you doing?" Suzie had appeared behind him and was looking over his shoulder curiously.

"Just saying hi!" Her eyes went wide for a second, behind them Ant heard a little gasp. He turned around to catch a girl with short white and grey-blue streaked hair staring at them with shock from around a corner, there was a hat pulled firmly over her hair but Ant could have sworn he saw it twitch.

Zenia had spun to attention at the gasp too, and as she tilted her head at the girl in an uncertain manner the stranger hastily flashed a toothy grin and fled back around the corner.

Ant shared a glance with his older family member, they'd have to be more careful from now on.

"So what, can you like…talk to them?" Ant looked up, his new sister had apparently seen nothing, and although there was a laugh in her voice, Ant caught the slight eagerness in her eyes that he had seen when she first saw his ears. In fact he had gathered the impression that she must have been warned by his new mom about asking him too many questions.

"Come on Anthony, there's no time to dawdle!" His 'father' was striding ahead with a nod to Zenia's new parents.

"See you later Zen!"

"By Shorty!" She called after him. On impulse he swung around back to her as he walked off.

"You look pretty in a dress by the way!" He called, and saw her fighting down shock. "Especially the frills!"

"Don't make me set Lord Byron on you and your dogs Ant!" she shouted back in mock threat. Ant giggled as he jogged to his family.

He hadn't realised quite how much he'd missed the herd for even one night until he'd seen Zenia's figure in the distance. But it had been comforting to see her, so casually, so _normally_. The knowledge that he might well bump into some of the others even before tomorrow seemed to blanket him with a slight comfort. And his adoptive parents were very nice! And they'd cooked him a nice pizza to eat with a salad, and asked all about his favourite things.

Mark had even mentioned getting ant a bike…not that he really needed one but the thought was nice. And the two dogs were great company! He had stayed awake most of the night talking to them, they seemed to have known that there was a lab doing 'bad smelling things' in the city even before the fire.

Despite all this however, he still was hoping that Monday would come quickly. He needed to see his own family, he missed them like a pain and his wolf senses were telling him that maybe they weren't all having a very good time.

Hopefully on Monday they'd all be able to be together again for a while, and then everything would be ok.

Even if they _were_ in school.

::

Oh my God this was so long I'll be amazed if anyone made it through! Okay, a couple of notes (though I wont go on ;D)

1. I've finished uni! Woo! (and passed, in case you're curious) so the creative juices can once again flow! But I do have to find a job, so keep that in mind ;D

2. Next chapter should be swifter, shorter and funnier to write, as I wont necessarily do everyone's POV, everyone will be in it though don't worry. :)

3. I put a bit of Shayne and Chrissy in this (did ya spot 'em?) I know it wasn't big parts, and you guys are probably sick of waiting, but next chapter they will be in some members of the herd's classes, so they can be formally introduced (if not necessarily exposed yet ;P) and will get some screen time. Also… I put Jessie in this chapter… I don't really know what I'm doing with her, and I'm definitely not doing her much justice… Shortval if you're reading I'm so sorry! I don't quite know what happened, but I'm trying still don't worry, and there's still Jason, who I 3 ;D

4. As always, any ideas for school, classes, things to happen etc are very welcome (even if there things to happen in the future/happened in the past).

Finally, you guys have been incredibly supportive, thank you sooooo much for your continuing faith! And yes, I deserve a good few smacks for not updating in nearly a year *whacks head on keyboard* but, in my defence, I've had a shocker! Your reviews are love and oh so inspiring! I'm really grateful to all you faithful reviewers xD ya'll have my thanks!

Hope you enjoyed, Shadowtheo

P.S. If there are too many typos, I hope you can forgive them, I just wanted to upload this as soon as I could ;)


	15. Chapter 15

Note: Some characters sections are longer, and Bianca gets a lot of screen time, but that allows me to tie the sections together. Even if it is not your character in a section, I hope you still enjoy it for the story.

Special thanks to San child of the wolves for inspiring me to finish this chapter, cheers girl!

Maximum Fallout: 15. The first day's the roughest, right?

Bianca was falling through her dreams. The herd had been taken from her; she could see their silhouettes shimmering behind the glass doors of classrooms as they screamed to her for help.

Spinning on the spot she saw the corridor of doors stretching beyond her, each trapping one of her family within.

Staring at the door nearest her she saw a hand reaching up to the glass window slowly, shaking. Blood smeared down the window where the fingertips pressed weakly.

Her heart stopped beating, her blood running cold as she turned to run for the door but she couldn't get close! Growling she leapt for the door that was travelling away from her. Her head smashed into cold metal bars. The ceiling came down to send her crashing onto the floor.

Panicked she tried to turn around, her body cramped and trapped where walls had sprung up around her. The white back of a cage met her eyes. Her head swung back to find the cage bars of a crate in front of her. White light blinded her through the cage and the smell of antiseptic made her retch. Terror gripped her and she cowered at the back of the cage. Barred shadows from the cage door cast lines across her. Her fevered eyes flew open through her curtain of hair to see a hand reaching through the bars-

"_Biancaaaa_! Wake up!"

"Geway fromme!" Bianca's cry slurred with sleep as she sat upright. There was a crashing sound from over the bed and her eyes blinked trying to adjust to light. She was, of course, sitting in her new bed, morning sunlight shone brightly but colourlessly through the flimsy and thin white curtains.

Alfie was sitting up from where he had fallen on the floor and was rubbing his head, an indignant pout of his face.

"Whaddaya do that for? I was only sent in to wake you up." Bianca merely stared at him. After about a minute the silence was almost beyond bearable.

"Well I'm up." She said in an obvious sort of voice.

Alfie stood, still nursing his bruise, and walked from the room, looking back and shooting a covert look at her ears, which were laid rather flat and to the sides in annoyance.

The door closed behind him and she sighed. Shifting to her knees she reached over and drew back the curtains. A post-storm white light was filtering in rays through the clearing clouds. From this high up in the apartment building that her family lived in she could see the city sprawling below was glinting as the light hit its rain-drenched surfaces.

Shining still more brightly were the skyscrapers that crept higher even then this building. Seagulls wheeled around these concrete giants in arcs as they rode the thermals. The snow leopard sat staring at the heights for a while, her own hair painted almost pure white by the blank light, her pupils pinpricks surrounded by pale blue.

Today would be a whole new type of misadventure. The first one that she had experienced with the herd that she wasn't at all ready for. Her thoughts flew out to the others, wondering how they were feeling as they dressed into their uniforms and prepared to join the clone-like nation of school children. Were they nervous? Scared? Excited?

All Bianca herself could feel was a sort of mindless fuzz of nerves, her stomach feeling oddly empty and insubstantial. Her mind couldn't quite process the future beyond the walk to school.

Slowly and gingerly she stood and begun to dress.

Gradually her reflection changed from ethereal snow leopard to human. Ordinary, mundane, and common.

The white shirt was scratchy, the grey tunic dress over the top looked the spit of the dress she had had to wear at the lab, except that one had been white. Her eyes glanced at the dark navy jumper but she left it off. She was hot and bothered enough without even more layers on.

Somehow breakfast seemed to pass in no time at all. She didn't speak a word as Alfie rabbited on about the friends he would see today. In no time at all they seemed to be walking down wet roads and streets. Bianca could see the imposing skyscrapers and white sky above them as she looked in the puddles that went by. Vaguely she thought that she heard Mr whatever-his-name-was complain that she was getting her boots grubby by not caring that she was walking through the water.

"Here we are then." Slowly her eyes turned and she tilted her head upright. In front of her loomed walls and an open gate, a driveway leading to a large school building surrounded by playing fields and sports courts, smaller buildings were detached and attached to the larger one. The main thing that caught her eyes was that the steady trickle of people they had passed had now become one giant throng, a seething mass of uniform-clad children from her age right the way down to Ant's.

They all looked the same. Quite a few of them were turned to look at her, a group of well-built boys were pointing and grinning. Bianca felt her temper spike. Well let them look and point, let them laugh! All she had to do was fake it to make it. Animal instinct. Give off the right attitude and no one would bother her.

"By." She said lightly and casually to her adoptive father. She reached up and ran a hand through her hair, flicking it over her shoulder and felt the wind catch it, took a step forwards over the threshold and kept her head high as she walked to the school.

_::Fallout::_

Ash's ears were flat back against her head under her hat, she had to stop herself from constantly pulling it lower to make sure the wolf appendages were hidden. She also had to stop herself from lashing out at the loud and excited people pressing in around her. Her shoulders were tense as coiled springs and hunched defensively.

"Oh, sorry!" Ash recovered from the person knocking into her but could barely control the snarl fighting to get out. The blonde, curly-haired girl flinched and edged away with a fearful look.

"_Ash_!" She swung around, looking through the doorway of the large hall that everyone was heading for. Neon was standing with his arms wrapped tightly around himself and was shaking, his eyes begging her to come closer. A feeling of relief swept over her and she hurried over, noticing that he was as tense as she was, but he was shaking with the desire to run, she was shaking with the desire to start cracking skulls.

"There's too many, _why_ are there so many?" Ash just shook her head, her narrowed eyes trapped at watching the seething mass trample by. When she spoke her voice was strained with tension and sounded higher then usual.

"Why are we meant to be in this room as well, I don't like it!"

"The girls I live with said to find a seat but I managed to escape them. Maybe we can run!" He looked up at her with sudden hope. "They'd never know we weren't here, Jason might try to kill us but I reckon we could take him!"

Ash thought that the flamingo must be desperate if he was contemplating fighting his best friend, but Ash couldn't blame him. Just as she thought of how bright the sun would be outside, how they could just slip out and then ride the thermals, a sneering face smirked at her from across the huge hall.

Her eyes hardened as Andrew gave her a mocking little wave, seemingly completely at home with several girls surrounding him, they started to look over at a whispered word and point from him. Ash felt her indignation rise. She wasn't about to be beaten by that smug bastard. He thought she couldn't take it, but she could and would! If just to prove a point.

"Come on, we have to stand straight, we have to do this, think of Ant, Taco and Zenia, we need to be strong for them!" She pleaded urgently, grasping Neon's shoulders and shaking him. Proving a point or not, she couldn't get through this alone. The name of the puma girl seemed to strengthen the flamingo's last vestiges of resolve and he stood straight, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

"Okay, I can do it." He didn't sound too sure, but his attempt made her_ try_ and relax her shoulders. She glanced back across the room and saw that, although Andrew was looking away, a pout on his face, that the girls were still looking over, as were several of the boys and girls walking by them. She felt her spine tingle slightly and glared at them, Neon had crossed his arms again and turned his head away, the iridescent streaks in his hair turning a faint shade of pink to match his blush at the stares. This was going to be harder then she thought if people already thought they were suspicious.

_::Fallout::_

Zenia had looked around for the others to no avail. She guessed that they all looked so different now that they might not recognise each other anyway.

"Hey, can I sit here?" Zenia looked around, along the row behind her a girl was leaning forwards and had her hand on the seat next to Zenia. Zenia blinked up into her face for a moment.

In a flash she had leapt to her feet and grabbed the girl, pinning her down on the floor by her discarded chair.

"You're spying on us! I saw you in that alley yesterday!" The girl looked up at her appraisingly before smirking and turning so fast that Zenia ended up being pinned.

"I wasn't spying just looking, you two weren't exactly being subtle!" Zenia growled and bent her legs, kicking viciously up at the girl's stomach. She let out a rather feline screech as she tumbled away down the row. Zenia leapt up again, ready for a fight, the girl was on her feet in a heartbeat.

"Hey look! Cat fight!" they both swung around to see some boys a few rows down pointing up at them and making 'meowing' noises. Both girls froze. Zenia turned narrowed eyes to the white haired girl, the blue and purple streaks in her hair standing out under the harsh lighting.

"What do you want?" She hissed.

"Nothing, just…" The girl looked around cautiously before gesturing Zenia closer. Against her better judgment the puma-girl moved forwards. Sitting down the girl looked around again before lifting her skirt up at the side.

Zenia blinked, bewildered. Before her eyes was undeniably a white tiger-striped tail, held down with the same contraption that was constricting her own. Feeling slightly light-headed Zenia sat down heavily next to the girl.

First they meet Ash, then Jessica… Just how many more mutants were there out there?

"What's your name?" She asked, pleased when her voice didn't sound too feeble.

"Victoria." She intoned with a shudder "But you can call me Ria." the tiger-girl hastily added. "What's yours?"

"Zenia. White tiger?" Zenia queried, Ria nodded with a feral grin. "I'm Puma."

"Thought so, but… Where are your ears?" Zenia jumped as the tiger-girl reached and grabbed at her hair, rummaging through clumps of it in the pursuit for ears. After a few seconds of hair-infiltration Zenia gently pulled the girls wrists away with an awkward sort of smile.

"A-ha, um never grew 'em! What about yours?" Ria sat back, Zenia saw her black hat twitch in telltale places. "No way? They just stay down?"

"Mm hmm. Most of the time… Imagine having _normal_ ears though! Think I'd cry!"

"Yeah? Well its at least easier." Zenia turned away and crossed her arms, slightly stung by the girl's comment. The lack of cat ears was hardly her own fault! "And besides, plenty of us have normal ears-"

"So there _are_ more of you! I thought that little boy with you yesterday smelt strange, how many are you?" Zenia glanced at her appraisingly.

"Enough…" Ria blinked then smirked a little.

"Fine, be like that." She turned to face forwards, putting her hands behind her head. "But really," she glanced over at Zenia, "I swear I mean no harm." Zenia narrowed her eyes at her, reaching out with her mind. The girl's thoughts were certainly feral, and angry, but not directed at Zenia. Probably she was just hardened from life, Zenia couldn't pick up anything malicious. Maybe it was animal instinct? Maybe it was just comforting to be sitting with another of her kind?

"How long have you been here?" Ria raised an eyebrow.

"Long enough." She replied with a mocking smirk. Zenia grinned despite herself.

"I don't mean anything by being suspicious… There's so many of us we've learnt to be careful, my family can't afford to get noticed." Ria gazed at her throughout appraisingly. A soft smile grew on her face.

"You're a family?" For some reason Zenia blushed.

"Well, that's at least what we call ourselves, but it's not biological…" She tried to put her finger on what exactly her herd was. "Its stronger then that." She looked fiercely into the tiger-girl's eyes, daring her to laugh. But instead found her eyes had grown a little calmer.

"That sounds nice… Besides! I have family with me too!" Zenia lent back as the girl grabbed her bag and rummaged in it before pulling out a black and white cat, holding it under its front legs. "This is _Kanda_!" Her face lit up and 'Kanda' meowed.

Zenia stared at the cat for a few seconds.

"He's, He's cute… _But why the hell did you bring him to school_!"

"I can do whatever the hell I want with powers like mine! Aw look, Kanda, isn't she cute when she's flustered?" Zenia flushed in annoyance.

"Hey I'm not the one with candy striped hair!" The girl burst out laughing as Kanda purred, quite at ease with the quipping. Zenia couldn't help but laugh along with her.

::

Ant wasn't _quite_ sure how he had managed to get to the right classroom, and had suddenly found himself ordered to take a seat amongst about 15 normal humans his own age.

However it had happened, he had chosen to go with the flow. There wasn't much else he could do anyway. The teacher had introduced him to the class, indicated where he should sit and was now rummaging through her bag for a marker pen to begin the lesson. Ant looked around him and found that half the class was staring at him with a keen interest. One short-dark-haired girl lent sideways closer to him, her hazel eyes warm with her smile.

"So your name's Anthony? Have you lived here for long?"

"Hey move _over_ Shirley! Hi I'm Gracia," the curly-haired blonde girl turned around to lean closer to him, her eyes were grey-blue and wide with excitement.

"Never mind _Gracia_, I'm Max, do you play football Anthony?" The boy in front of him had turned to face him, his brown hair in tufts and a big grin on his face and in his blue eyes. Ant was about to attempt replying to one of these but he felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned to face the short-spiky-haired blonde behind him whose grey eyes were eager.

"Yeah! Our team needs new players this year, can you play?"

"Nooo, Charlie! He doesn't want to play football with you boys! I'm sure you want to join the craft club right?" He turned to his right to face a bespectacled brunette girl. The light was glinting off her glasses so he couldn't make out her eye colour.

"No way, Geneva the craft club is only for girls!"

"Not true! We have boys there too!" Ant watched the girl pout and couldn't help the bemused smile at their teasing antics. As the teacher called for silence he committed their faces to memory. A pressure seemed to release his chest. Ant hadn't noticed the knot in his stomach until it had gone. The welcoming smiles around him had done more to ease his nerves then he had realised.

Smiling to himself with new resolve he turned his attention to the white board, and swiftly felt the pressure return. He baulked as he stared uncomprehendingly at the board.

Now…Ant was pretty sure he could read, maybe he'd never really owned any books, but Kuro had taught them all how to read using his laptop and Ant had picked it up pretty quick.

He could read menus, street signs, and all the things one usually read, even if he'd _still_ never got to read a book. Kuro would probably tease him for reading anyway, but he'd still like to try… Overall however, he was fairly sure that he was able to read as good as any mutant, better then some.

But what were in front of him right now weren't words but letters and squiggles and little symbols and numbers… Soon Ant felt his head swimming as the teacher scrawled more and more of these incoherent scribbles across the face of the whiteboard. His head dropped to the table in exasperation and slight despair.

He had thought he was just maybe going to fit in, how was that going to happen if he couldn't even read! Absent-mindedly he began doodling on the paper in front of him, words gradually forming the phrase 'I hate maths' in bold capitol letters. At least, this subject had been called maths, which evidently went far far beyond the only mathematics _he_ had learnt, which mostly consisted of 'how many erasers can get in through the window before I can get out' or 'how many tens of erasers are coming at us from behind heaps of rubble' or 'how many erasers does it take to screw in a light bulb – insert insult of choice'. He had just outlined his words with big spikes when an elbow nudged his arm, he jumped and glanced over to see Geneva smiling at him.

"You're not alone there," She moved her arm to reveal her own, rather more curly script of the same words. "I just wish we had English today." She murmured quietly, pouting as she begun adding flowers to her doodle.

Ant smiled, a little relieved that he wasn't the only one struggling, and turned his attention to the board again with resignation. He should at least _try_ to follow what was going on…

By the end of the lesson Ant, however reluctantly, had had to admit failure on that particular mission.

::

Jessie had found it surprisingly easy to slip back into the routine of school, even if there now seemed to be an even bigger chasm between her and the rest of the pupils, she was at least aware now that she wasn't alone.

A couple of people had even recognised and welcomed her back, and even if she didn't feel completely at ease with these untested humans, she knew that Bianca and the herd were struggling even more then she was. So the bird-girl had decided to be strong and calm, as best she could, to hopefully ease some of their stress.

Still, when break time rolled around with the usual clanking of bells, she found herself alone, sitting on one of the railings surrounding the school grounds, watching the world go by.

She had missed her father _so much_ it was as if she'd sustained a physical wound. Now that she was back however, the whole experience seemed so frighteningly fragile and surreal, as if the slightest brush of her wingtips might crumble this reality and she'd wake up again. Alone in the dark.

Could she really return to normalcy after everything that had happened? Could she forget and move forwards? Could she really stay paused in this city with its comings and goings, live with the knowledge of what happened to her and never fight back against it?

But what could she do except that? The thought of running off to try and get justice, of being away from what she knew again terrified her. How could she leave? How could she even think about leaving her dad just after finding him again?

…But then there was the herd. She'd been wary of them at first. And that horrific exodus through the night and rain had been enough to make her slightly mad, shouting and screaming for her father for the world to hear when she saw that doorway to heaven. Their lifestyle in parts exhilarated and terrified her.

She had done her best to help them, to show them another way of life. She could only hope that at the least before they'd run off again, that they could feel the warmth of a parent, of a family. That maybe she could pay them back in some small way for what they had done for her.

Jessie was in no doubt that they would escape this town in time and run as far as they could to wherever on Earth they were trying to go.

She just hoped that by then she had made up her own mind…

Would she be buffeted by the wind on its whim as she flew though the skies wild and free? Or would she remain safely with her family, in a giant birdcage with her wings clipped and unable to fly, but always loved?

::

Kuro was having a great time. This, alone, was quite the surprise. As it turned out however, he was quite good at this school stuff. The chemistry class he had had this morning had been fascinating, and the maths he was in at the moment was brilliant. He hadn't felt this mentally stimulated in ages.

Part of him felt guilty for admitting it, but it was sometimes frustrating for him to be with the herd, knowing that they weren't as quick-minded as him. It was just nice to have a change of scene, to _learn_ something other then how to fight erasers… How to live out of garbage cans.

He had caught a brief glance of Ash and Neon at Assembly, and something had made him stay well clear. They had looked petrified. Personally he had been surprised that Neon wasn't passed out on the floor. Much as Kuro liked the flamingo, he wasn't quite all there in the head. He had also been surprised that people had been walking that close to Ash without becoming bloody. Judging by the semi-murderous glint in her eyes it had been a close thing.

It dragged him down, that his family, for all their abilities, were mostly so unwilling or unable to adapt.

But, he had to remind himself, he _had_ been treated differently back at the lab… His life had taken a different route thanks to his sister's protection. He had been taught intellectually, rather then physically. Really, it had been almost similar to lessons… Thanks to her…

Kuro shook himself slightly. No, he couldn't judge the rest of the herd as he judged himself, these other students. For all he knew, if Bianca, Neon, Zenia, and Ant had been given the same training as him, they'd be just as smart. In fact, Ant was still so young he might benefit from school as much as Kuro did.

Taco must have been educated at least a little, but after what happened to her…well… And Jason was smart enough, but he didn't have Kuro's thirst for knowledge, or naturally high IQ.

And to be honest, what with how eagerly he was drinking in the lessons, Kuro hadn't really paused to pay any attention to his fellow classmates.

It was somewhat of a surprise therefore, to find himself being followed from classes by a group of giggling girls. Eventually, after a few minutes of wandering around apparently aimlessly, trying to loose his tenacious tail of females he decided to try a different tact. So far he hadn't talked to anyone, partly because he wasn't paying attention and partly out of wariness. However, he didn't seem to have any other option.

He turned to face the girls who darted behind a corner, giggling.

"Okay, how about instead of following me around you show me the way to lunch, I promise I wont bite." '_Much_' he added to himself. The girls glanced at each other before walking towards him with fresh giggles. One was nudged forwards by the others and blushed as she turned to Kuro to speak.

"M-My name's Ashley," Kuro had to bite back the laugh at the mental image of this girl standing next to a certain ferocious wolf-hybrid he knew of the same name. It seemed unreal that this polished plain girl could share any similarity with Ash. Because one thing Kuro knew for sure, compared to this group of girls, the herd females were almost unbearably exotic and striking.

"And this is Amy, Lucy, Charlotte and Harriet." He almost snorted again at Harriet, a rather dumpy mousey blonde. She wouldn't last five seconds against an eraser! But at least hopefully she'd never have to.

"Nice to meet you ladies, I'm Kuro." He couldn't keep the laugh out of his voice when talking to them, but they seemed to take this as flattery.

"L-lunch is this way." Ashley indicated rather breathlessly. Kuro smiled as he followed them off to lunch. That hadn't been so hard.

The lunch hall on the other hand, was a nightmare. Students _everywhere_. Queuing for food, talking and joking loudly at tables, waving to beckon friends and shouting insults at enemies. His sensitive ears shied away at the noise level, thankfully hidden under his hat. Literally _hundreds_ of humans! He thought Neon might faint if he walked in the door.

"_Kuro_!"

"Who's _that_?" Kuro took a moment to collect himself and looked over to where Charlotte was pointing with a very strange expression, something between a sneer and a pout.

_Bianca_ was there. Leaning on the table her food was at to get a better view. Now that he saw her, he didn't know how he could have missed her. Her hair was glimmering with a light that seemed to drown out everyone around. He smirked with a strange sense of pride as he saw all the looks directed at the snow leopard and who she was calling at. _He_ was the one being called over by the school's eye-candy. No one but Kuro was in her eyeline.

"Oh, that's Bianca." He replied casually.

"_Bianca_! What sort of name is that?" Harriet muttered nastily.

"I thought you just moved here? How do you already know someone?" Amy demanded.

"She's my fa-friend!" He saved himself swiftly from saying 'family'.

"But she's new too! So how can you know her?" Amy insisted. There was a nasty gasp from Lucy.

"She's not your _girlfriend_ is she!" Kuro blinked a few times at the sudden accusation and the change in the girls' faces from happy to sour and pouty.

"_Kuronue_ get your fat ass over here now!" '_Perfect timing as usual' _he thought, gratefully accepting the excuse to leave the slightly crazed girls.

"Sorry ladies, my _friend_ is calling." There were various noises of protest as he turned and strolled over to where Bianca was waving, a most relieved expression on her face at his approach.

As he got nearer, he saw the reason why he hadn't spotted her earlier, huge guys surrounded her on the table! They were all at least as tall as Jason and about three times as wide. They eyed him with appraising glances as he slowed his approach. When he was close enough Bianca leapt up with her tray heaped with food and ran around the table to grab his hand and drag him outside.

Kuro looked back to see the guys stand up and lumber off to another table full of girls as Bianca led him through the door.

Outside was much less populated and lit with warm sunshine. Bianca pulled him over to a picnic bench set behind some trees at the far end of the front lawns.

Kuro stretched before sitting down as Bianca plonked her tray down before copying him.

"So what was with the macho-crew back there?" He questioned with a tease, reaching for a chip on her tray. Bianca eyed him for a second as if she might try to defend her food, but instead waved her hand in allowance with a hopeless sigh.

"I don't know, they've been crowding around me all day, saying some pretty pathetic pick-up lines by even my standards. Ha! As if I'd fall for that! Therefore…I've come to the logical conclusion that they're Whitecoats in disguise." Kuro paused with a chip on the way to his mouth.

"Bianca, they're the same age as us,"

"Well then they're the sons of Whitecoats! "She retorted angrily turning to grab a fistful of chips and stuff them in her mouth.

"Not very lady-like-" He commented singsong voice.

"Oh shut up blondie!" Kuro burst out laughing again.

"Come on Bianca, you've survived half the day! That was more then I had banked on." Her shoulders relaxed.

"I guess, anyway, what was with those girls back there?" Kuro chewed his food thoughtfully.

"Same as you really, although… I'm pretty sure none of them are Whitecoats!" He chuckled, Bianca smiled a little too.

"You might be right about that. But anyway," She swung around on the bench to face him, Kuro met her eyes and saw the sincerity in them. "How are you doing? Are you finding it ok?" Kuro's grin softened into a smile.

"I'm fine Bianca, you don't need to worry. For me its not too bad." Bianca nodded, offering him a smile.

"I'm glad. But what about the others, have you seen any of them? I've been looking for them but I haven't seen anyone!"

"Have you seen how many people there are here? I'm not surprised you haven't seen them."

"But still!" The panic came back in her eyes. "What if they've all been kidnapped? Or worse! What if they like it here?" Kuro couldn't help it, he laughed again.

"Chill out! You are _so_ paranoid."

"But if they like it then we'll never get them to leave!" She flopped her head down to the table. "What if they all want to stay…"

"It's been _half a day_, calm down." She sighed.

"Your probably right. I'll call a meeting tomorrow after school, at least things ought to be a bit calmer then."

"Yeah should be… And besides, given the amount of people in that lunch hall, do you really think half of them would have braved going in there?" She laughed a little and they continued eating in a thoughtful silence.

_::Fallout::_

Jason was rather enjoying school. Or at least, he was enjoying meeting some new people. As it turned out, these human kids weren't so different from the herd, apart from the obvious physical variations.

But he had found, from talking to some of the people that he was in classes with that these humans weren't how he had been picturing them. They weren't the shallow, spoiled, nasty creatures he had stayed up half the night dreading meeting.

Sure, there were some of them. But on the whole, given the chance, most seemed ok. He had even spoken to some that had darkness lacing their eyes, signs of tragedy and pain.

On the whole, he had had to assume that there was no formula for being tortured. Random acts of cruelty existed outside of the realm of science. Perhaps more frequently.

This day had been eye opening for him so far… Even though the actual lessons weren't that interesting for him. He had enjoyed biology however, they had learned about photosynthesis.

He was using his time instead to fully take in his surroundings. Maybe, after all, he would end up doing this every day for years if he found his family again. If he could pull off normal, then it was at least an option. He liked options.

Jason had also been pleasantly surprised that the rest of the herd hadn't kicked off, or at least not too badly. True, he had seen Ash throw a tray of food at some girls that were talking about her snidely…but to be fair…that was only after Neon had chucked orange juice at some other people for laughing at the two of them. He'd have to watch that pair, he'd never seen Neon react with anything other then avoidance or flight to confrontation before now.

On the other hand, He'd talked to Ant briefly and he seemed a bit nervous, but really quite happy, although he had complained about being hot. But he hadn't been able to speak to the kid for long before a group of five girls and boys his own age had run up and dragged him away with much excitement. The wolfish smile on Ant's face had been heart warming. Not to mention the swoop of excitement he'd felt from the wolf-kid.

He hadn't seen Bianca, Kuro, Zenia or Taco…but he was assuming that if they'd created any large-scale damage he'd have heard about it.

Or at least, that was what he hoped.

_::Fallout::_

Shayne had been trapped in this city for about three months. During that time she had had to adjust to living with humans again. After everything she had gone through, that had been _hard_.

But then, she might not have made it at all if not for humans. As she crawled out of her dumpster-dive of a landing those few months ago, lights had flared into the alley she was in. She'd had the luck to crash land between apartments.

She'd tucked in her wings best she could but still the first person on the street had seen the broken one. Her luck had changed miraculously in that second. The woman had beckoned her and seeing no other option Shayne had followed.

As luck would have it, the woman _knew_ about mutants! Shayne had been filled in about some facility that had burnt to the ground and given some basic first aid. The lady couldn't help her, but pointed her in the direction of someone who could.

Shayne knew to this day that it was nothing but pure desperation that had sent her back into the winds that night to chase down someone called Mr. Anderson; the front of Mutant Relations within the city. The pain had been too great to ignore. That and the acute knowledge that she would either be found by the police or die if she stayed outside in that weather.

It had, fortunately, been one of the smartest decisions she had made. She had been able to live in at least relative comfort and safety whilst she recovered, with a reclusive but friendly enough writer.

Things…were strange in that apartment. It had taken a lot of getting used to, but they had fallen into an easy enough routine. And at least she had complete freedom to come and go as she pleased, especially as Betsy appeared to keep the most random hours of sleep known to man, and mutant, kind.

Mr. Anderson had given her some 'rules' to follow; she had to attend school whilst she was of school age and remained here. This was to keep up appearances mostly. If the authorities suddenly noticed several children and teenagers not attending school, suspicion would be roused. And the last thing Shayne wanted was to be put on any radar. If she kept low-key it would be so much harder for any whitecoats to find her.

She hadn't relished this at the time, but school had gotten easier. And her wing was completely healed now. The only problem was, as far as she could tell, it was nigh impossible to escape from this place without being noticed or caught. Not without help at least…

So here she was, sitting in chemistry, alone at a table as lab partners ran to each other before the teacher could pair them off. Chemistry was useful. Maybe if she could make a bomb…

"Uhhh hey… Can I like, work with you or something?" Shayne was jolted from her thoughts by a rather unenthusiastic voice from behind her. She turned to see a tall, skinny blonde girl eyeing the room sceptically.

"And you are?" Shayne asked unsurely, the girl turned back to her, and they both froze. The girl's eyes were the colour of ice shadows, and Shayne knew for sure no human had those eyes, she could smell the feline on her skin as well, hear the difference in her heartbeat… By the look on the girl's face she had come to the same conclusion when she saw Shayne's crimson eyes.

Shayne knew there were other mutants in the city, just the other day what she had thought was a mutant boy had nearly passed out in the clothes shop where she worked, and even made what had sounded like a reference to erasers.

But to meet one this suddenly was not what she had anticipated today. The girl swiftly looked around and moved a step closer. She looked right into Shayne's eyes with piercing intent.

"First thing that comes into your head; Eraser?" Seeing the game Shayne replied without missing a beat.

"Wolves." The girl hinted at a fanged smile.

"Laboratory?"

"Hell."

"Animal?"

"Hawk."

"For me same, same and snow leopard… "The blonde laughed slightly ironically yet relieved. "Here was me, first human I dared talk to all day and you turn out to be one of us." Shayne tensed at the word.

"Us?" She was shot a glance but also a short nod.

"That's right, are you with anyone?" Shayne shook her head "No one from your lab…?" Shayne glanced down with bitter memories.

"Mostly failed, or '_terminated_', most were bird hybrids…" the girl nodded briefly before deliberately changing the subject.

"My name's Bianca, no last one, what about you?" She smiled casually and shook Bianca's outstretched hand.

"Shayne Rider. Nice to meet a fellow."

"Yeah, too true brethren." Bianca grinned and took a seat, leaning on the table to stare into the Petri dish they were meant to be examining. Shayne couldn't help staring. She'd never even _seen_ another fully-grown mutant. There had been some before her at the lab, that she knew, and lots of young ones that had either been implanted with avian DNA at an embryonic stage or as infants…none of the infant-implants had survived for more then a few days.

But low and behold, here was one sitting in front of her. Shayne's heartbeat sped up in excitement. She had said 'us' as well, that meant there were more of them! Maybe, just maybe, they could help her escape… She wondered how many there were? Were they all snow leopards? She was longing to ask, but no. Shayne would exercise her expert patience on this one. There was no way she was letting this opportunity slip away.

"So what brings you here?" Bianca glanced over.

"One of us…wanted to come home. Now we're all kinda stuck here." Damn, so they were stuck too.

"Same, I crash-landed in a storm. I'm healed, but I can't get out either." Bianca looked over fully, a slightly anxious expression in her eyes.

"How long have you been here?"

"A couple of months." Her face fell.

"And in that time, you haven't found anything?" Her voice trailed off as Shayne shook her head.

"Not for want of trying, but at first I couldn't fly, and then when I could I couldn't because people might see, so I couldn't test anything out and then come back to land…I don't know the landscape well enough to try at night." Bianca sighed deeply and leaned back in her chair, stretching.

"That's what I was afraid you'd say…well, time will tell I suppose. But I'd rather get out sooner then later…I hate it here…" Shayne just heard the last muttered sentence. The girl looked out of place certainly, her leg was jiggling with frustrated energy that seemed to be creeping through her. It was like seeing a caged animal. Shayne thought this girl must be used to a lot of freedom to be feeling trapped already. It had taken the hawk-girl at least two weeks to work out and feel just how trapped she was.

"Just how long have you been free?" Her voice was soft, wondering.

"About…" Shayne watched as the girl counted off her fingers. "Six years now." Her jaw dropped, that was longer then she'd dared hope to believe was possible.

"_Six_ _years_?" Bianca looked over at her incredulous voice and smiled softly, seeing the disbelief and desperate hope that Shayne was feeling. The blonde turned to her with determination in her eyes.

"That's right, and if you're willing pull your own weight I'll get you out of here. With the rest of us, I swear it." There was a fierce look in her eyes, daring Shayne to do her best. The Hawk girl stared for a few moments with an incredulous, hopeful and amused smile on her face. Her heart was racing at a mile a minute as she considered what must be this group's leader. A promise of freedom, protection, with a successful group…it was just what she needed after her fiasco of a year. Blue eyes welcomed her with collaboration, honest and powerful and without a hint of deceit.

As recruitment speeches went… It was music to Shayne's ears.

_::Fallout::_

Taco trailed the sun-bathed streets on the way back to her house, staring at the piece of paper clutched in her hand.

Her adoptive siblings were going home separately, but not because of animosity towards her at least. Taco was still feeling the triumph of connecting with Renee this morning…

"_So… Are you excited about school?" Taco questioned slightly anxiously, she was doing her best to make friends with her new siblings. She'd never had any problems making friends before, their initial frostiness had been somewhat of a personal insult. It surprised her therefore, when Renee displayed some true emotion, a small smile lighting her face._

"_Well, not about school… But I am about seeing her." Taco leant forwards as they walked, her natural curiosity spiked._

"_Who's 'her'?" Renee blushed slightly._

"_She's my girlfriend." Blue-yellow eyes widened slightly, now that she thought about it, Renee having a girlfriend somehow made a lot of sense. Taco took a moment to digest the information. "I haven't seen her since last term. I hope..." Her eyes turned sad, Taco felt a pang at the sorrow she could see._

"_What?" She questioned softly. Renee sent her a nervous glance before throwing it off with a shrug and melancholy smile._

"_I just wonder if she'll have forgotten me…" Taco slowed to a stop, Renee turned to her in surprise. Her heart was pounding with some unusual feeling, what was it?_

_Smiling faces shone through her mind, the feeling of being loved. Taken away…_

"_Are you alrigh-?"_

"_She'll remember you." Renee blinked in surprise and stood straighter. Taco shut her eyes and took a breath, looking up determinedly. "She'll definitely remember you!" Renee looked slightly nervous about the tears in Taco's eyes and slightly angry._

"_What are you saying that for? How could you know?" Taco puffed out a breath and relaxed her shoulders, Renee must have been carrying this around for a while… Come to think of it, so had she…_

_The white haired girl looked up again with a soft smile._

"_She'll remember you. When you love someone, you don't forget it," her eyes lit with warmth, "so that's why, she'll definitely remember you." Renee blushed at Taco's words and expression._

_After a few moments pause they turned and walked on in silence. They followed the steps of their own shadows on the pavement._

"'_Love' huh…" Taco looked over at Renee's soft voice, there was a smile on her face and in her voice, her cheeks holding the faintest hint of a blush._

Taco sighed to herself. She'd waved goodbye to Renee at the end of school, the girl was smiling and waving in a carefree way. Taco had smiled at Renee's girlfriend, who had her arms wrapped around the thin girl's waist. Taco thought she recognised her from somewhere, but couldn't be sure.

Now she was strolling home on her own, taking the walk slowly as she reflected on the day…

It had been strange, overwhelming and a riot of emotions. Somehow she couldn't really remember much of it. She sighed again, figuring this was a coping mechanism…just like when she went all psycho on erasers. Taco clenched the piece of paper in a show of anger she'd never usually display, stopping her walk.

She was standing on a bridge overlooking the older part of the city. The sun beat down on her warmly. In the distance the steady rhythm of the sea beat gently against her ears.

Blurred faces drifted through her mind, fuzzy conversations. She'd met a lot of people, but none of their faces had stuck yet. Being entangled with chinchilla DNA as an infant rather then an embryo had had its side effects. She knew it all too well, her family did too but they never mentioned it without her bringing it up.

"Scarred for life…" she muttered, clenching her fists in frustration. She wasn't normally this overly dramatic. But today had been a whirlwind.

Renee's worries had struck a deep cord. One that apparently was attached to many previously untested cords.

Her parents' faces… Taco's eyes prickled. She could remember their smiles, or she could remember the memory of them. To forget about her parents, forget about the parents she loved… It was her greatest fear. Their faces were never as clear anymore, their voices harder to recall. The feeling of love remained unaltered, and that was what she was terrified of loosing above all.

If she kept forgetting things, then maybe one day they would disappear from her completely. It was something she was determined not to let happen. Something she _couldn't_ let happen…

Gradually her thoughts returned to the moment, the sun almost insistently trying to wake her up with being as bright and hot as possible.

She supposed, this was the first time she'd really been alone in years…

Her eyes drifted down to the crumpled piece of paper she was holding. The teacher had given out the sheet in their last lesson, it was a list of the clubs the school offered, apparently it was compulsory to join at least one after school activity.

Taco's eyes scrolled over the list, unsure about her feelings towards the whole thing. Maybe… just maybe… a club could help her with her memory? Maybe school in its entirety could help her?

If she could try to remember faces and lessons, activities and friends, practice using that part of her brain, then maybe she could hold onto her memory for just a bit longer. Maybe even improve it. After all, when she practiced her agility she would get better.

Besides, today she'd seen some good in this city and school, Renee had unknowingly helped restore her faith from yesterday about this adventure. She had to remain positive. This was an experience she couldn't fail to grow from.

Taking a decisive breath Taco looked around in a new light. Her eyes caught on a building in the distance and she smiled, a small laugh escaping her.

For starters, she'd get a job.

With a spring in her step Taco walked decisively towards the building that was _definitely _going to improve her memory, the bright signs of the Taco Bell welcoming her closer.

::

:3 I shall TRY to keep this short ;D

You are all amazing! I am still trying! I am determined to give this story my all when I have the time to write!

PLEASE READ! Chapters from 17 onwards will be very different in an effort to improve my writing speed. Basically they will be shorter and focus on about 3 or 4 characters POV's at a time, rather then each team member each chapter. This should hopefully make them shorter and easier to plan for and write. If you have any questions or worries about this please ask me and I shall do my best to answer and improve, I really am very open to suggestions.

For the two new characters (they live!) – Any critique is greatly appreciated, I may not have got them completely in character so if you see any issues please let me know sooner rather then later! Same for the old ones too, they may act out a bit given the different scenery etc.

I always appreciate ideas/thoughts/critique etc (especially if you want your character to have a specific meaningful friend or experience, its difficult to think of that many new people and ideas whilst making them realistic).

Oh, I have a new picture up too and am planning to put up more soon. You guys know where to look!

Hope that wasn't too long! Hope you enjoyed!

Thanks for reading, Shadowtheo.


	16. Chapter 16

Ha ha I know, no one freak out or anything! I really _can_ write fast when motivated!

Chapter 16: Clubs, Clubbing, and Clubbed.

Bianca waited impatiently, drumming her fingers on the table. She was sitting in one of the deserted houses far on the west side of the town. She had stayed up the night before in the library (having left the house once everyone was asleep) using whatever means she could to find an ideal meeting place.

She couldn't have used the home computer in case Alfie tried to chase her search and found where they were going to meet. As it stood the computers at the library had taken her about half an hour to force into cooperation… Some hadn't made it through the process. Kuro would probably kill her if he found out.

She figured though that anyone going through the library records wouldn't blink at seeing someone was researching building and demolition plans for the city. Hours and hundreds of plans later Bianca had found the ideal place to use as a meeting point temporarily.

Now she was sitting upstairs in the derelict house she had chosen, hoping that the others had all got the message. They had had to spread it as the opportunity arose, so there was always the chance someone didn't get the memo. But hopefully they'd start turning up soon…

_::Fallout::_

"Jason! _Jason!_ Jason JJ Johnson!" the kangaroo paused in his step and turned, pushing through the crowd was Bianca, looking hassled and urgent. Her emotions were fried and erratic. Jason's gut twisted at her desperate voice and expression, was she in trouble? Had they been found? She tripped through the crowd and he reached out to grab her.

"Bianca what's wrong?" She brushed white blonde hair out of her eyes and glanced behind her.

"I don't have long, they were waiting for me-" His heart beat faster.

"Where are they? Who are they?" He demanded. She turned back to him with the weirdest expression.

"Uh, never mind that, anyway, we're meeting tonight, here's the address." She thrust a piece of crumpled paper into his hand and stepped out of his arms, looking around. Jason watched, now completely perplexed, as her eyebrow twitched in annoyance at something. "Just," She turned back to look at him and started moving away into the building "pass it along okay?" She winced. The tall boy turned to see several huge guys elbowing through the crowd and pointing at her with grins.

"Hey where ya goin' gorgeous?" His brain seemed to desert him as he stared dumbly at the guys.

"Nowhere with you! Ugh, see you later Jason." The blonde girl turned and jogged into the hall, her hair swishing round behind her. It looked nice, he had to say, apparently so did the guys.

"Yo blondielocks wait up!" Bianca turned around and considered them. The smirking smile on her face seemed electric and shocked Jason.

"Not on your life!" She called back with a laugh in her voice. The kangaroo's shoulders slumped in astonishment 'just what the hell? When did she get so relaxed?' When the girl finished her turn around however, he saw the disgusted exasperation. She was still in there, just hiding, like they all were. Although she'd certainly raised the bar with her defence mechanism.

His eyes travelled down to the piece of paper she had given him, registering her chicken scratch handwriting. He'd have to re-write this before giving it to anyone else.

_::Fallout::_

"Neon! Ash!" Ash froze in the motion of hauling up the boy by his shirt, turning with a glare to the approaching Jason.

"Uh oh." Neon muttered, pushing himself away from the locker he'd been leaning against. Ash saw the normally easy-going kangaroo boy narrow his widened eyes. She dropped the boy who scrambled over to his gawping friends. They swiftly scarpered, the guy Neon had decked chasing after them. Jason strode forwards.

"What the hell were you two doing!" Neon brushed his hair from his eyes, running a finger over the cut near his temple. Ash spoke up for the evasive flamingo.

"The jerk jumped him." Jason's pace didn't slow as he stepped up to Neon. Quick as lightning his fist lashed out. Neon smashed back into some lockers. Ash's ears pricked under her hat at the ferocious determination in the flamingo's eyes as he looked back at Jason.

"What were you thinking Neon! You could crack that guy's skull in!" Neon's hair flashed and he pushed at Jason savagely, the older male staggered back in shock.

"He was aiming for Ash." Jason's eyes flashed in anger, apparently Neon's reasoning just didn't cut it.

"That's not the point! You guys can take care of yourselves and we are _supposed_ to be keeping a low profile! You can't just beat people up who rub you the wrong way Neon!" Hurt flared briefly in the flamingo's eyes before being replaced by a subdued, dead look. It occurred to Ash that A, Jason hadn't said anything to her, even though she was the one who had continued the fight and B, he was showing a complete disregard to their wellbeing. This was a hard time for them all, surely Jason could see where they were coming from?

Besides, the guy had _jumped_ them. With a _switchblade. _Were they meant to lie down and let the jerk stab them?

"Hey don't look like that…" Jason could evidently see a lost cause as the flamingo turned his head away stubbornly. "Fine, look, there's a meeting tonight, here's the address. Pass it on when you see someone else okay?" He handed two pieces of paper to Ash, who took it without a word but with a glare. He gave her a passing glance filled with something like resentful disappointment and turned back to Neon briefly.

"No more fighting, got that?" Without waiting for the reply, Jason could probably tell he wasn't going to get one, he turned and left, glancing back at the pair of them. "And decide what club you're going to be in!" He called back, a little bit of desperation in his voice.

Neither Ash nor Neon talked again until they were back sitting in their next class, a lazy sort of sunshine filling the room with a calm neither felt.

Eventually Neon pulled the list of clubs towards them on their shared desk, leaning over and staring at it uncomprehendingly. Ash wasn't sure he could read, although she was no pro herself. She lent forwards and her eyes scrolled down the words with her spirits falling.

She wasn't sure if Neon was feeling the same amount of anger and resentment that she was for being stuck in this school, but he definitely wasn't his usual self.

"Are there any you like?" He eventually asked, he sounded back to his normal self, well, normal for school self anyway.

"I'm not doing a stupid club." His blue eyes glanced over.

"Jason won't like that." Her fists clenched.

"I don't give a damn about what he wants. And neither should you!" She turned to the flamingo with fire in her eyes. He merely shrugged. "Why do you always do that? Shrug it off. It's like he owns you or something!" Neon's fist clenched as her words for a second before he relaxed.

"It's not like that. He saved me. I trust him." With that matter apparently settled Neon sat back and stared out the window. Ash lent forwards to glance at his eyes before slumping back. She made a mental note not to bring up the subject of 'Jason' again. Neon was the best friend she had in this place, and he wasn't very good company when he was sulking. Besides, when it came to twisted relationships, she was the champion. Ash's brother flashed through her mind, Andrew as well. The last thing she needed or wanted was to make another enemy like that. And it wasn't as if she was in a position to judge Neon's questionably healthy relationships.

"This sucks." She mumbled. Neon's quiet laugh made her smile for a few seconds. It was about all she could hope for in this place.

"Well, let's just pick something easy." She muttered, truthfully she really didn't need Jason making her skin prickle as well as Andrew, she had to prove she could do this!

"What about art?" Neon pointed at the name on the list. "I heard some girls saying earlier that anyone can do art club because it's so easy, and that barely anyone does it." Ash was impressed by Neon saying so much at once.

"A club where all you have to do is show up, sit down and scribble for a couple of hours, without loads of people? Sounds perfect." Slowly she picked up a pen and drew a circle around the name.

_::Fallout::_

"Zenia!" Ria's ears pricked under her hat as she heard the call. She turned to see a blur of colour and Zenia gone from her side.

"What the?" She looked around in confusion and saw Zenia being held captive by a tallish, thin guy with bizarre streaked hair.

"Neon! '_Low profile'_ remember?" Ria turned again as a thin girl dashed past her and pulled the guy off Zenia, looking around nervously to check no one else was around. Zenia was laughing however and not looking in the least worried. Ria thought it was the first time she had seen her relaxed. '_These two must be mutants as well!'_ She thought, focusing her eyes on the minute details no human would have picked up on; the subtle, nervous flicking of ears under the girl's hat, the slightly raised lumps of wings under the boy's jumper.

Zenia grinned at the two of them.

"You don't know how good it is to see you two!" The girl gave a tight smile back, still looking around apprehensively. Ria could smell her anxiety. The puma girl reached up and fluffed her hands through the guy's hair, leaning her head up slightly so that their foreheads touched, a serene smile on her face. The guy grinned and pulled her into another hug.

"Neon, people at twelve o-clock!" Reluctantly 'Neon' let go and muttered something out of her hearing range. The girl held out a piece of paper, Zenia reached to take it and waved them a reluctant goodbye, turning to walk back to the tiger-girl. The other two turned as the girl pointed to a door labelled 'fire exit' and they hurried out before the corridor became too crowded.

Zenia put the piece of paper in her pocket as she reached Ria and they fell into step.

"Were they?"

"Yup." Ria weighed her options and curiosity against her common sense. Curiosity won.

"Sooo, can I go to that meeting?" Zenia looked over in surprise. "Oh I didn't hear it! But why else would you be given some paper? So, can I go?" Zenia stopped walking, a stubborn expression on her face.

"Look-" Ria rolled her eyes.

"Oh come _on_! I'm a mutant, what's not to know! What's not to like?" She grinned and shrugged, waving her hands in a carefree way. Zenia cracked a smile.

"That's not the point, we're all in it together-"

"_Yes_! In it together with your friendly neighbourhood tiger, right?"

"_SO_ we _all_ have to make that decision together, get it?" Her words lost their bite with the amusement in her voice.

"Gawd alright I get it, no need to have a panic attack I wont gate crash!" Her eyes narrowed at Zenia "But I can help you get out of this place, like I said, and all I need in return is safety in numbers." Zenia rolled her eyes and started walking again. Ria matched her pace and caught her by the arm.

"Hey, I mean it, I want to meet them. But I'm not gonna pretend that its for another reason other then to get the hell out of here. After that you can keep your family." She was being honest, sure, she liked Zenia's devil may care attitude, but after they all got out of here, she doubted there would be any bond keeping her tied to the girl.

"Well. Glad your telling the truth." Zenia replied calmly. "I'll tell my friends about you, I'm sure they'll want to meet you too." She turned to leave but Ria's grip remained firm.

"How do you know you can trust me?" She quipped with a dangerous grin. Zenia's returned grin was full of mischievous pride.

"Oh that's easy, I can read minds." This time when she turned to leave Ria's grip slipped off her. She took a heartbeat to recollect herself.

"And how do I know I can trust you?" She called after her, Zenia flashed her a smile.

"There's a code among cats!" The puma girl left to her next class, Ria let out a bark of laughter.

"What am I getting myself into?" She shrugged the thought off. For the first time since arriving here and being forced into an adoptive home, she was actually starting to enjoy herself. She was then distracted by a whiff of chocolate. Someone had a bar sticking out the back of their bags.

Casually she swiped it and went to her next class. Things were looking up!

_::Fallout::_

"Hey, Taco!"

"Uh, hey is that girl talking to you Kaylee?" Taco, or Kaylee as the humans knew her, turned around and saw Zenia pushing through the crowd. She could honestly say she'd never been more pleased to see the abrasive puma girl.

"Zen-Zen!" Taco waved a goodbye to her curious group of onlookers. They went ahead of her into the next class. The hallway was clearing and as Zenia got close Taco was unable to fight the urge to wrap her sister in a tight hug. Zenia stood rather still and awkwardly as ever when she was given affection by anyone other then Neon. Still Taco hugged tighter, because she was Zenia and she was still awkward and abrasive and perfect in every way. She was the touch and smell of home.

"You alright Taco?" Zenia eventually asked, uncertain but with underlying anxiety. The chinchilla-girl pulled back and shrugged, although she could feel the emotion boiling in her chest. Her new resolution had been harder to maintain then she thought. Especially after she had forgotten everyone in her class overnight.

"Oh you know, just stressed… I, can't really remember anyone…" She couldn't keep the pain to herself. A glance at the older girl's uncomfortable purple eyes made her wish she had. The two of them didn't really _talk_ like that. Zenia didn't know what to say. And even though she knew that was just the way things were with them, and hadn't expected anything different, the look on her sister's face still stabbed at her like a wound.

Slowly they looked away from each other. Zenia brushed off the sentence in the way she always did, Taco shook herself and plastered her smile back on, trying not to think about the thoughts the black haired girl might be catching from her.

"Here," She held out a piece of paper and Taco took it with curious fingers. "There's a family gathering tonight, pass it along if you see anyone."

"Ok, sure." The little light of hope and possibility she had felt yesterday was stuttering in the dark. She had to wait to hear back from Taco Bell, Renee hadn't been back last night for her to talk to, and she missed her family… But to see them all when she had achieved so little here, especially when she had been badgering everyone about how great everything would be, made her feel like a little kid. Zenia was looking at her again.

Taco watched half heartedly, seeing the puma's mouth move uncertainly a few times. She couldn't take it any more.

"I'll see you later, Zen." She turned to go into her class.

"Hey wait!" Slightly surprised she turned, seeing Zenia's hand outstretched, still looking painfully awkward, but determined. "Don't give up just yet, it sucks but… At least we'll all be together again tonight." Taco shrugged, feeling her throat constrict. She didn't want to see them feeling like this. Didn't want them to see her. "It'll be okay! I…have faith in you." Zenia blushed at Taco's widening eyes and turned to leave at a jog with stiff shoulders.

A small smile tilted the corners of Taco's mouth, she could sense Zenia had meant it. However un-forthcoming it was for the puma to admit it!

Turning back to the door of the classroom she paused. Even in the time she'd been out here, she couldn't remember the faces or names of the group of girls she'd been talking to before.

"Hey, are you late for class? She hasn't made you stand outside on your own right?" Taco turned, surprised for the second time, a dark brown haired, blue eyed girl was jogging up to her, smiling. "You're Kaylee right?" Taco nodded, managing a smile. "I'm sorta late for class too, so do you wanna go in and sit together? That way at least there'll be two of us." The girl gave a slightly lazy grin. Taco's heart beat a little stronger. Someone had sought out her to talk to? So far she'd been the one initiating conversations, unbearably fruitlessly at that.

"Yeah, okay…" This girl was in her class? Taco didn't know her at all. "Um I'm sorry, I don't know your name." The girl waved it off with another carefree smile.

"That's ok, you've only been here a day. I _still_ don't know half our class' names and I've been here ages! I'm Sophie, nice to meet you." She smiled and stretched out a hand. Taco returned the smile and formal greeting with a concealed laugh. She got the impression the girl wouldn't have been offended though even if she had laughed.

"Let's go brave the dangers." Sophie grimaced, Taco nodded grimly before giggling. As the girl turned away Taco closed her eyes, and was pleased to find she could remember her face. Maybe, if she tried one at a time, she'd be able to make it through this place. And make it through with pride.

_::Fallout::_

"Kuro!"

"Ugh, not that girl again!" Kuro eyed the pouting faces of his entourage awkwardly. They sure had gotten clingy since yesterday.

"Uh, yeah, sorry ladies!" He turned and jogged off to where Bianca was walking towards him, waving. Quite thankful for an excuse to shake them off.

"Heya B."

"Hi, listen, tonight we've got a meeting-"

"I know, Jason already found me. Looked pretty pissed about something though. Anyway," He cut in before she could ask the inevitable question of Jason's emotional state. "I need to talk to you." Her eyes fixed on him, keenly enough to make his skin prickle slightly.

"I've been trying to hack into those files we lifted from the lab, but I can't get into them at the house." He paused when she just looked confused.

"Files? What file- _Oooh_." Realisation dawned on her face, evidently she had forgotten all about the files what with the turmoil that followed getting them.

"I think that they'll only open with an Internet connection, the password isn't just encrypted it needs to be verified over a server back to the original terminal." Bianca's eyes glazed over slightly before blinking back into focus.

"But, if they need to be opened over an Internet connection, doesn't that mean the source can be traced?" Kuro was slightly impressed she'd grasped the problem so swiftly, his ears flicking appreciatively.

"Exactly, which is why I didn't want to try it at the house. I don't know how long it will take to open, but even if we try in the school at least they can only trace the connection back to the school internet, not the computer used. Hopefully that way I can manage it. But-"

"You need a lookout? Consider it done." Kuro looked into her determined eyes and smiled at her commitment, he hadn't expected her to be so on board with his plans when she was so keen to escape. "Getting those files open could explain a lot of things, and at least this is the best place we've got for resources, might as well use it." She explained, Kuro grinned.

"My thoughts exactly. So when should we-"

"Bianca!" They turned, a girl with short black, red-streaked hair was waving over at Bianca. Surprisingly the blonde smiled back and held up a finger to indicate she'd only be a second.

"This is something I've got to talk to all of you about tonight. We can plan more then okay?" Kuro nodded and she turned and jogged towards the girl, calling back over her shoulder to him. "Have a good day Kuro!" He shook his head and turned around to head off to lunch, but found his way blocked with by the five girls that had begun tailing him.

"Ah! Uh, hi again ladies."

_::Fallout::_

"Hold on a minute, Shayne. Ant!" Shayne watched as Bianca called over to a young blonde boy and ran over to him.

"Bianca!" The little kid ran to the older girl and latched onto her waist briefly before they detached and walked a little way off from the group he'd been standing with. She thought she could see him wriggling slightly like a happy puppy. It was pretty adorable.

Shayne figured that she'd now seen two members of Bianca's Herd, as the girl called them. At least she now knew what a couple of them looked like, although she'd never have guessed that someone so small could have escaped from a lab six years ago and survived.

But then, Shayne was beginning to sense that in numbers there were few things the members of her species couldn't do. Bianca ruffled the shorter blonde's hair and turned to jog back to her.

"So was he?"

"Yeah," Bianca glanced over at Shayne with that appraising look in her eye again. "We're having a meeting tonight. If you don't mind, I want to tell them about you, that way no one's keeping secrets." Shayne smiled at the snow leopard's strange behaviour.

"Whether you mention me or not, I don't think I can control it if I'm not there." She responded sensibly. Bianca grinned at her.

"Still, I'd feel better with you knowing. That way you at least know what's going on about as much as I do. I don't want to start a partnership off with grudges." Shayne had to admire her honesty, even if she wondered how it had allowed the girl to be free for so long. The bird-girl tried not to think about the prolonged freedom for too long though, it made her heart thud with excitement and nerves. She quickly changed the subject.

"So do you know what club you're going to do?" Bianca pulled a face.

"I haven't had time to look at that damn list."

"Here then." She pulled out her own list and pushed it into the blonde's hands. "See if there's one you like." Bianca poured over the list as they walked along, eventually her eyes caught on one and she stopped walking.

"Found one?" Bianca stared at the list.

"They have a dance club here?" Shayne nodded and saw a small smile spread over Bianca's face. "Than I'll take it." Shane smiled.

"Good, and I might take that club too, so there'll be a familiar face some weeks."

"Some?" Shayne nodded at the question.

"I'm also in the music club, I play an instrument." Bianca frowned and Shayne had to hold back a sigh, evidently Bianca had never known her family, because she had such a limited knowledge of all things human. Luckily the bell rang before she had to explain the origins and purpose of the trumpet.

_::Fallout::_

Ant jogged up to the derelict house and saw Bianca wave at him through the second floor window. He dashed up the stairs, heart jumping with excitement and hurled himself into the room.

"Hi guys!" Luckily there was a dog pile as soon as he walked in because he'd never have been able to choose who to hug first.

Eventually they all separated and Ant went to sit on the floor next to Ash and Kuro. The wolf girl had undone her tail and taken off her hat, Ant looked around and saw that they had all shed their restrictive items of clothing as Bianca slid the curtains shut. Dashed rays of light spilled into the room from gaps in the damaged material.

He felt somewhat calmed at seeing his family around him. Even if most of them did looked strained and tired.

"Right, first things first. How is everyone?" there were some mutinous mutterings and brave nods at Bianca's question. "Well that's better then I expected." She murmured. "Does everyone at least feel pretty safe in their houses?" Most nodded, but Ant saw Ash had only jerked her head. Bianca sighed and gave up trying to direct the conversation.

"Okay well, we'll talk properly after, there's a couple of really important things we need to discuss. I've met another mutant." Jason sat up straighter along with Kuro. Ant gasped in unison with Taco and Ash's ears perked. Zenia raised her eyebrows and Neon didn't react at all.

"She's a hawk mutant, like Jessie and Ash, and she crashed here three months ago in a storm. Her name is Shayne Rider." Bianca paused to let this sink in. "I don't know much more then that except that she wants to get out of here, and I think she should join us." Jason raised his eyebrows this time.

"We can't just go around picking up strays."

"Oh yeah? And does that mean I'm just a stray too?" Ash snapped back. "Who are you to decide!"

"Ash, its okay, you're one of us, forever." Ant supplied swiftly, sensing the tension rise from Ash's anger and seeing Jason's narrowing eyes. He placed his hand over Ash's and squeezed. She looked surprised for a moment before relaxing slightly with his smile. Taco looked around the room swiftly before speaking up.

"Well I don't mind having another family member, but I'd like to meet her first, otherwise she could be just about anyone! And at least if we've all met her then if there _is_ something off about her one of us is sure to notice it." She finished with a smile, leaving the rest of them trying to make their brains catch up with her talking speed. Zenia shook her head to clear it before talking.

"Its more then just that problem too. I've met another one of us as well." She paused for the wave of shock that once again claimed the room.

"Man they're really breeding us like rabbits these days aren't they?" Kuro offered to the silence with a surprised laugh.

"Her name's Victoria, or Ria, and she's a Siberian tiger. I think she's pretty trustworthy, although it's hard to tell… At least she wants to meet you all, but I'm pretty sure it's mostly for her own ends I think. But there's something about her that makes me think she'd do okay once she got to know us." Bianca nodded, a little bemused.

"Well, I suppose we'll just have to meet both of them, although well have to be careful about it, just in case there is something off about either of them. But even if there is, I don't know if I could knowingly leave either of them here." Kuro nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, it might not be such a bad thing to have more fire power. But the more people we try to leave with, whenever that is, the harder it will be. We have to be sure they can pull their own weight. After all, we don't know if Jessie's going to be discovered, and if she is we'll want to take her with us too won't we?" Bianca hummed in response. Jason ran a finger over his chin thoughtfully.

"You know, these clubs we've got to do, we _could_ use them as a screening process." Several pairs of eyes shot to him curiously. The tall boy leant forwards.

"Well, let's say one of us each tries to get into a club they're doing. That way we can see any skills they have and get to know more about them too." Bianca sat straighter.

"Well that's easy then. I'm already going to be in the same club as Shayne, we're both doing dance." Jason smiled over at the snow leopard. "She's also doing music though, and I'm not going to sign up for something I don't understand.

"I'm doing music!" Taco piped up "Apparently they have a choir!"

"Good for you Taco." Jason encouraged, ruffling her hair as she giggled.

"And I've signed up for athletics with Ria anyway… Even if it is just an excuse to run around and get muddy, I can't wait to see the look on that woman's face…" Ant laughed at Zenia's muttered threat to turn up less then pristine at her pristine house.

"Well I'm doing swimming and conservation. What about everyone else?" Jason asked, looking at Ash and Neon in particular. Kuro sighed over-dramatically and pulled the sheet towards him, holding it above his head to look at.

"I've gone for the IT club, I'm hoping that will help with-"

"That's right!" Bianca picked up. "The other thing is Kuro's going to try and break into the files we got from the lab." Ant's eyes widened. He'd completely forgotten about the reason they had gone to the lab, what with the dramatic escape and then having to run away from the cave with Ash's warning of erasers. It seemed like weeks ago now that they were living on that hillside!

"Yeah, I figured that during that club I could at least see if there's any useful resources here." Jason nodded, Taco was looking wide-eyed around the group, Ash's hand had tensed beneath his and Zenia's lips tightened anxiously.

"I know its difficult but try not to get too worked up about what might be on there. You should concentrate on whatever it is you want from this place and pretend you don't know anything if you get questioned from Kuro trying to hack into the files. I'm going to keep a lookout whilst he works and hopefully nothing bad will happen, but I want you all to play dumb if anyone catches us."

The herd nodded solemnly. Ant tried to slow down his heart. He couldn't even imagine what was on there. _Would_ anything be what they wanted to know? Would they even be able to understand it?

The room was silent for a few moments as the herd digested the information. Eventually Jason broke the quiet.

"Oh yeah, we never heard what you're going to do Ant?" Ant looked up to see his family's eyes on him with curiosity. The wolf boy thought about what Bianca had said. Focus on whatever he wanted from here. But what did he want? He wanted to get as much as he could from this place whilst they were here. He didn't want to miss a single thing. In case he never got this chance again, he didn't want to let it go without experiencing everything he could from it.

"I'm going to do all of them!" Ant announced with conviction.

"_What_?" Kuro chocked

"Ant that's crazy!" Zenia admonished.

"Oh how cool!" Taco exclaimed.

"Are you sure you can manage all of that?" Jason asked. He looked around at their faces and felt his heart thud.

"If this is the one time I'm here, then I want to make the most of it. I don't want to miss out on anything!" Ash's eyes widened at his determination and even Neon seemed to wake up. Bianca's eyes softened with warmth.

"I'm sure you'll do great Ant." Ant beamed at her.

"I'll do my best!" Jason managed to recollect his face after sharing a look from Kuro.

"Even so, how about we just narrow that down _slightly_ little guy? I mean, do you really want to learn…" Jason said, pulling over the list as Kuro eyed it.

"Advanced mathematics and statistics?" Kuro finished. Ant flushed slightly.

"Uh, well…maybe not _all_ of them…"

In the end Ant walked away from the house merrily reading his list of clubs, proud in the knowledge that he was doing more then any of his family and was going to make the most of his time here.

Tomorrow he was going to sign up for athletics, football, music, arts and crafts, English literature, debating and World studies.

::

Hehe I change perspectives in such an easy way in this chapter. xD Anyway I hope you enjoyed both the chapter and speedy update!

Okay! I now would like your input (again!). I plan to write about 4 characters each chapter from now on, with others possibly making minor appearances. So I'd like you to suggest which characters I should put in the next chapter. You can pick four, and I don't mind if everyone suggests their own character, as long as you suggest three others as well. :)

You can suggest things for the characters to do as well if you want. I have a story plan for each character and I shall follow along those stories when they appear. I only ask you to suggest characters because I don't want people to be disappointed when their character isn't in every chapter. I just can't do it, please don't hate me for that!

Oh yeah, by the way, if you want you can choose how important a relationship you want your character to have with the ones I have created, like friends and family. Otherwise I'll just do my own thing.

Oh also, I forgot, this story got reported a while ago. Grr. So if it does get deleted I shall upload it on my livejournal account.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Shadowtheo.


End file.
